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FAQ

Have questions? We've got all the answers. If you don't find your question on this page, please send us an email at suppor[email protected]. We'll get you an answer as soon as we can.

Do you have a free trial?

Yes, all new accounts are credited with $10 of free credit which allows you to try out a node for free before requiring payment.

What Lightning Network node software do you run?

Currently all of our nodes run Lightning Lab's Lightning Network Daemon (LND). The project is very well supported and has many integrations and applications written for it.

Do you provide Lightning node management software?

The primary management dashboard that we offer is currently Thunderhub which is a very robust tool for node management for most use cases. With your node's macaroons and TLS certificate (which is provided on your Voltage dashboard) you are able to remotely connect and manage your node externally as well.
You can connect to the LND APIs directly from your node's API Endpoint. You can see the LND API Specification here: https://api.lightning.community

What's the difference between a Lite, Standard, and Professional Node?

Each type of node is significantly different than the others. In order to understand what's best for your use case, continue reading to learn the difference between each.

Lite:

A Lite node is backed by Neutrino, runs on a shared platform, and only supports Tor for peer-to-peer communication. These nodes can encounter issues if they are being used with a moderate number of channels or transactions. For that reason, we only recommend Lite nodes for personal wallets or a quick testing instance. Lite node is NOT compatible with Loop, Pool, and Faraday.

Standard:

A Standard node is backed by a full Bitcoin node, runs on a shared platform, and only supports Tor for peer-to-peer communication. Clearnet is supported for remote access. These nodes can handle a larger number of transactions or channels with reliability. For that reason, we recommend Standard nodes for small projects, persistent test environments, or small routing nodes. Standard nodes are compatible with Loop, Pool, and Faraday.

Professional:

A Professional node is backed by a full Bitcoin node, runs on it's own dedicated server, and supports Clearnet & Tor for peer-to-peer communication. These nodes are very scalable and can handle virtually any use case. For that reason, we recommend Professional nodes for any production-ready application that's going to accept customer traffic. Professional nodes are compatible with Loop, Pool, and Farady.
For further product comparisons, please see our nodes page at https://voltage.cloud/nodes.

How can I upgrade my node type?

On the homepage of your node's dashboard, towards the bottom you will see a section called 'Upgrade node'. This will let you select what type of node you want to update to. By upgrading your node type, it will require the node to be restarted. Additionally, once you upgrade your node you can not downgrade it.

Do you offer Testnet LND nodes?

Yes. On the standard node deployment screen, choose testnet rather than mainnet. There are no price differences between mainnet and testnet nodes.

How do I restart my node?

To restart your node, go to your primary Voltage node dashboard. Then click the square stop button. After shutdown, click the triangle play button and give it aproximately two minutes. Then you may unlock your node with your password.

How do I Update to the newest Version?

To Update your Node version or your Voltage version to the newest, go to your primary Voltage dashboard and click Update. This will often trigger a restart, so be sure to unlock your node after the restart is complete.

Does Voltage do any Compaction of Channel Database?

We don't compact a database for you or on an ongoing basis. However, we have a setting for your node called 'Auto-Compaction'. What this does is that it enables the auto-compaction flag in LND. When this is set, every time your node starts up it will attempt to compact your database files (maximum once every 24 hours). This can be used to run a compaction on your database inside of Voltage. Please be aware that enabling this flag does add additional time to a node starting up.

What applications can I use to connect to my node?

There are many applications that allow you to control and gather data from your LND node. The type of software depends on what you are attempting to achieve, but here are the most common applications:
  • Zeus : Great for on-the-go access to your node on your mobile device.
  • Zap : Light weight mobile client that allows remote access to basic functionality of your node.
  • Ride the Lightning : A web-based dashboard for node management.
  • ThunderHub : A web-based dashboard for node management.
  • Joule : A browser extension that allows you to send/receive with your node in your browser.
  • Lightning-Jet: A fully automated rebalancer for Lightning Nodes.
  • Juggernaut : An open source web app that allows you to send private messages with the Lightning Network to other Lightning users.
  • lncli : Advanced command line tool used to interact with your node. Built into LND.
  • Faraday : A command line tool that allows you to view and pull node related historical data.
  • Loop : A service provided by lightning labs that allows you to use on-chain transactions to manipulate your channel balances. Example: If you have a 5,000,000 sat channel with all on local side and want it to be 2,500,000 on both sides, you can use LOOP to receive the 2,500,000 back on chain so you now have inbound liquidity.
  • balance of satoshis : An advanced command line tool that can be used to run channel rebalances and see other data.
  • BTCPay Server : The premier open source point of sale system for bitcoin.

What makes Voltage different from mobile or desktop wallets?

What differentiates Voltage from other mobile/desktop software is that Voltage nodes are remote and always on. The user does not have to worry about hardware maintenance or up-time. You can connect to your Voltage node from anywhere, any time. Voltage is backed by a Bitcoin full node. Since your Voltage node is always on, you can receive payments without having to open an app and do so in confidence that your node is on reliable infrastructure. Your node is decoupled from the applications so you can use as many apps or combinations of apps as you like simultaneously depending on your personal preference.

Can I buy or sell Bitcoin on your site?

No, we do not offer services for you to buy or sell Bitcoin on our site. To fund your wallet, you must purchase Bitcoin from somewhere else (like an exchange) and fund your node from there. You can use the send/receive option in your Thunderhub dashboard to send funds from an exchange.

Do you use Neutrino or a full Bitcoin node?

Our Standard node type is connected to a Bitcoin full node. Our Lite node type is connected to Neutrino. Lite nodes are not as reliable as standard nodes because they are completely dependent on TOR to access bitcoin blockchain data which is needed for the lightning node to function. We recommend using the Standard option when creating your node on Voltage.

What settings can I configure in LND?

We follow the LND project closely and try to surface all settings users would want. If there's a setting you would like to alter that's not currently in our platform email us at [email protected].
Supported Settings Include (but not limited to):
  • gRPC API
  • REST API
  • Keysend
  • Wumbo
  • Minchansize
  • Maxchansize

Do you save my wallet seed, passwords, or macaroons?

We do not save any of your wallet passwords, seeds, or macaroons in a format we're able to view. We do backup your macaroons and seed, however they are encrypted with your wallet's password client-side before upload. Therefore, we are never able to see the contents. Backing up macaroons can help in the event of losing a macaroon, but it also makes certain parts of our dashboard (like generating a 'lndconnect' code) much easier to use. When initializing or unlocking your node the request goes straight from your device to your node's API.

Can you recover my seed or password if I lose it?

No, we do not keep a copy of your node's password and seed backups are encrypted with that password. If you lose your seed or password, we do not have the ability to recover it.

Do I have to initialize or unlock from your dashboard?

At this time, it's required that you initialize your node from our dashboard. This is because we rely on a feature in LND called Stateless Init to protect macaroons. Therefore, if you initialized your node from other software your macaroon would be lost. Once stateless initialization is merged, more wallets will support it.
We force the stateless initialization feature to be on all the time in our nodes. This allows you to do a regular unlock from any software.

How do I connect to my node?

Once your node is in the 'running' state, you will see a 'Connect' button on your node's dashboard. Once you click it, you will be prompted for your node's password. This is to decrypt your macaroon's backup file. After you have entered your password, click Connect from the menu on the left side of your dashboard and there will be a dropdown box with several external apps you can connect to. The method of connecting to your node changes drastically between applications. We've provided instructions for some of the most popular applications. Find the application you're using and follow the instructions.
If you want to request an application that isn't in our list or help connecting, please email us at [email protected].
Please note that we provision TLS certificates that are trusted by browsers. This means that most applications don't require a copy of the TLS certificate when connecting.
If you are having troubles connecting to your node, please check your IP Whitelist to ensure you aren't being blocked.

How do I download files from my node?

All nodes have the ability to export their files. These files include channel.backup, tls.cert, lnd.log, and full (meaning all files). You can export these files by going to your node in our dashboard and clicking the 'Export Data' button. You will be prompted to select which type of export you want to create. Select the type and click 'Start Export'. If you are requesting a 'full' export your node must be in a 'stopped' state. An export will be generated and ready to download. Please be aware that the download links for your exports are only valid for 1 hour. You must create a new export if the link expires.

Do you support Tor?

We support Tor for peer-to-peer traffic. All Voltage nodes have Tor enabled from the start and you can't turn this off. We don't currently support Tor for API traffic.

Can I take my Voltage export files and run them on my own?

No, it's possible you'll encounter problems. This can be things like architecture differences or running the same node in two places.

How does the IP Whitelisting work?

The IP addresses that you supply in your whitelist are the IPs that are allowed to talk to your node. All other traffic is denied. If you do not specify a whitelist then your node's API is open to the entire internet. This whitelist is applied to both the gRPC and REST APIs.
When you first create your node the whitelist is autofilled with your current IP address.

Why am I getting an error that my node name already exists?

Node names are globally unique for the network. If Alice created a node called 'foo' on testnet then Bob could not create a node with the same name on testnet. However, Bob could create a node called 'foo' on mainnet, assuming it's not taken by someone else. Node names also must be made up of only numbers, lowercase letters, and dashes.

How do I update my node version?

When your node needs an update you will receive an email and a blue 'Update' button will appear under your node in our dashboard. This means that there's an update available for your node. This could be an update to LND or the Voltage system. When you're ready to update, simply click the Update button. This will stop, update, and restart your node.

Do you use self-signed TLS certificates?

No, all Voltage nodes receive a valid TLS certificate that's signed by a trusted Certificate Authority. This means you don't have to supply a copy of the TLS certificate when connecting to your node (assuming your application supports it).

My node says it's not synced to the chain. What do I do?

If you are using a Standard node, a restart of your node fixes this issue almost every time. If this is a persistent issue please email us at [email protected]
If you are using a Lite node, it can take a while for Neutrino to sync to the chain. If your node has been running for a long time without progress a restart of your node could fix it.

I got an email that my node is ready to be unlocked, but I didn't restart it. Why is that?

If you receive an email stating your node is waiting to be unlocked but you didn't update or restart the node then it's likely something went wrong in our system. Rest assured, we get alerts every time this happens and we will work to prevent it from happening again. We don't know your password, therefore we can't do an automatic unlocking for you. Thus we notify you so you can unlock your node because it's required for your node to be unlocked to function.

Do you monitor my node's health?

We monitor every piece of infrastructure that we can. We get alerted whenever there's a problem and we have 24/7 support for our infrastructure. However, because we don't have your macaroons, that means we can't actually see what's going on inside of your node. It's important for you to also monitor your node to track what's going on inside of LND.

Do you modify LND?

We run a fork of LND that contains a few patches we require to run our nodes the way we want. Our fork is also open sourced and you can find it in our GitHub. We do not remove any features, only add them. Whenever possible, we submit our patches back to the upstream LND project. However, some patches are fairly specific to our product and don't make a lot of sense being in the upstream project.
Here is the comphensive list of patches we apply to LND: