Lightning Payouts

Bitcoin Mechanic
May 24, 2024
Overview

OCEAN uses BOLT12 offers for Lightning payouts.

To ensure the security and anonymity of the payouts, OCEAN requires that a message is signed linking your OCEAN bitcoin address to a BOLT12 offer.

To do this, message signing will need to be supported by your wallet and/or signing device.

Once you have generated a BOLT12 offer, OCEAN will provide you with a message to sign.

Note: You must ensure that you have one or more Lightning channels and the necessary inbound liquidity to receive payments, otherwise payments to you will fail.

Should OCEAN be unable to pay via Lightning, your on-chain address will be used as a fallback once your earnings reach the payout threshold.

Getting Core Lightning

Due to our use of Core Lightning (CLN) and the experimental nature of BOLT12, it is best to use CLN as your node. At the time of writing, only CLN is known to work, but we will update this documentation as more compatible implementations of BOLT12 become available.

A simple way to do this is using StartOS. You can buy a Start9 server here (buying through this link will give you a 5% discount). Alternatively you can download the OS for free here.

If you have the ability, set up your own server and install Core Lightning on it. You can also install Core Lightning on a laptop, though it's generally advisable to run a Lightning node on devices that are designed to be on 100% of the time, which is why we suggest running a dedicated server.

Generating the BOLT12 Offer

Follow the instructions below to generate a BOLT12 offer.

Generating the Configuration Message

Once you have generated a BOLT12 offer, navigate to the My Stats page for your OCEAN Bitcoin address, then click the Configuration link next to Next Block to access the configuration form.

Paste the BOLT12 offer here, update the block height to latest, click GENERATE, and copy the generated unsigned message.

Signing the Configuration Message

To sign the generated message, follow the instructions for your wallet or signing device below. (This list is still being updated.)

Submitting the Signed Message

Once signed, copy the signature, paste it into the configuration form, and click CONFIRM.