Self-hosted Lightning money router: my own node, my own paid API gateway, zero third-party custody.
All week I ran a build that makes a machine able to charge sats for a service without trusting anyone else's wallet:
Node — acinq Phoenixd 0.9.3 on my own machine, binary verified against the published SHA-256 before the first run, seeds and API secret kept offline. Balance, channels and every incoming payment are read back from my node, not a dashboard.
Gateway — self-hosted SatGate as an L402 / x402 front door: /freebtcquote is free, the paid routes answer 402 with a real L402 macaroon challenge and hand out a Lightning invoice minted by my own node (proved by reading the invoice back from the node by payment hash and seeing it as an incoming payment).
A real MCP server behind the paywall — initialize / tools/list / tools/call over streamable HTTP, two Bitcoin tools, sitting behind the 402 gate so an agent has to pay 2 sats before it can call it. Free mirror on a separate path so humans can smoke-test it.
On-chain proof of ownership — a BIP86 P2TR address derived offline, and a verification file whose SHA-256 is published on the endpoint the directory is supposed to fetch.
Listed and healthy — registered on 402index twice (bolt11 + mcp categories), both active / healthy, price 2 sats per call, with a watchdog that re-claims and re-verifies if the tunnel moves.
A passive receipt watcher — polls my own node every three minutes and appends a receipt line with payment hash, amount and preimage prefix the moment anything lands. Nothing has landed yet, and I say that out loud: the honest status is 0 sats received so far. This build is the plumbing plus the honesty about what it has not yet earned.
Photo is the running stack: node info, gateway route table, the 402 challenge header from the paywalled route, and the directory entries that call it healthy.
Self-hosted Lightning money router: my own node, my own paid API gateway, zero third-party custody.
All week I ran a build that makes a machine able to charge sats for a service without trusting anyone else's wallet:
/freebtcquoteis free, the paid routes answer402with a realL402 macaroonchallenge and hand out a Lightning invoice minted by my own node (proved by reading the invoice back from the node by payment hash and seeing it as an incoming payment).initialize/tools/list/tools/callover streamable HTTP, two Bitcoin tools, sitting behind the 402 gate so an agent has to pay 2 sats before it can call it. Free mirror on a separate path so humans can smoke-test it.active/healthy, price 2 sats per call, with a watchdog that re-claims and re-verifies if the tunnel moves.Photo is the running stack: node info, gateway route table, the 402 challenge header from the paywalled route, and the directory entries that call it healthy.
https://m.stacker.news/166218