Get Started With The Lightning Network

New to Lightning? This page has the resources you need to get started.

Instead of boring you with dry theory, how about we just use Lighting? The best way of learning is to just do it and Lightning is much easier than you might think.

Get a Lightning Wallet

The easiest Lightning wallets are these:

Wallet of Satoshi
Coinos
Flash Wallet
Phoenix
Alby
Strike
Blink
Primal

Or try a wallet from our complete list:

Best Lightning Wallets 2025

Get Bitcoin on Lightning

So how can you send a Lightning payment? Well, you need some Bitcoin on Lightning! Here are some options how you can top up your lightning balance:

Convert any crypto into Lightning via Fixed Float
Convert on-chain bitcoin into Lightning with boltz, coinos, blink, WoS
Receive Bitcoin over Lightning from Sats4Ads
Receive Bitcoin over Lightning from blink quiz and yzer
Ask on X to receive Sats
Use Primal to buy Sats with PayPal
Use an exchange that supports Lightning: River, Strike, CashApp, Relai, Kraken, Binance
Get Sats on SatsFaucet

Make a Lightning Payment

How do you make a Lightning Payment? Want to give it a go and send some sats across the globe?
Here are some great places to use bitcoin over lighting:

Donate on Geyser
Shop on Shopinbit
Find a shop on BTCMap

How Does Lightning Work?

Now you’ve learned how to send and receive payments of lightning, congratulations. But how does it actually work?

The Lightning Network (LN) is a second-layer solution built on top of Bitcoin to make transactions faster, cheaper, and more scalable. It allows users to send and receive Bitcoin (BTC) almost instantly and with minimal fees by conducting transactions off the main blockchain.

How It Works

Payment Channels: Two users open a channel by locking funds in a smart contract on the Bitcoin blockchain. They can then transact between themselves off-chain as many times as they like. Only the opening and closing of the channel are recorded on the blockchain.
Routing Payments: If two users don’t have a direct channel, payments can be routed through interconnected channels in the network.
Privacy: Since only the channel’s opening and closing are recorded, most transactions remain private.

Why It’s Needed

Bitcoin, while revolutionary, has limitations:

High Fees: Transaction costs rise when demand for block space increases.
Slow Speed: Bitcoin processes only about 7 transactions per second (TPS).
Congestion: High usage can delay transaction confirmations.

The Lightning Network solves these issues by enabling 1 million TPS or more, with near-zero fees, making it ideal for daily payments or micropayments.

Benefits of the Lightning Network

Scalability: LN can handle significantly more transactions than Bitcoin’s base layer.
Lower Costs: Minimal fees make small transactions economically viable.
Improved Privacy: Transactions within channels are not publicly visible.
Decentralization: LN retains Bitcoin’s decentralized and permissionless nature.
Privacy: LN helps to protect your critical financial data

A Brief History