Walletano - a simple and interesting way to start using Bitcoin Lightning Network

Introduction

I stumble upon this interesting application for some time, testing it in some occasions. I didn't talked too much about it because I was trying to understand the concept first and see how is going.
But today, I would like to present you this very simple LN app that offer you both ways to use your sats: custodial and self-custodial (or better say non-custodial). So please read this guide until the end BEFORE your start using it! There's a catch here and I saw some newbies making mistakes.
OK, you could come up saying:
"but Darth, why do you talk about custodial apps? Is not that against Bitcoin ethos?"
My answer is simple: don't be paranoic with "all self-custodial". I've said many times, sometimes a custodial account could be used very easily as a DECOY, especially if is not using a KYC verification. Also a custodial LN account could be used in many different ways to manage your self-custodial nodes liquidity, as I explained in numerous guides.
Walletano is a web-based app (PWA) that provides an easy and convenient way to manage your Bitcoin and Lightning Network wallets. Whether you're a customer looking for a hassle-free wallet experience, an LND node runner seeking self-custodial options, or a webmaster / company owner looking to transform corporate email addresses into Lightning addresses, Walletano has got you covered!

For who is Walletano useful?

1. For companies

I see Walletano as focusing mainly on companies that want to offer a customized LN Address same as the corporate email. This is very interesting feature for companies that start paying their employees in BTC and can do it with Walletano very easily through a LN Address too.
"Walletano-Email-to-Lightning" is quite easy to implement by any company webmaster, following the instructions from their Github repository.

2. For regular users, newbies in general

Walletano is damn simple to start and easy to setup. One-Click Setup, no lengthy registration process or tedious forms. Simply download the app or access our web-based platform, and you're ready to go. If a new LN user cannot start with his own LN node and just want to start stacking few amounts of sats this could be an excellent option. As I described in this guide, how to stack sats as a newbie with many LN apps.
Bellow I will explain a step-by-step scenario how to use Walletano and please pay attention to it.

3. Node runners

As a LN node runner you can use it for two things:
  • Offering accounts for family and friends. Yes you can link your LN node in Walletano app and create multiple separate accounts that can be used by your family, in a nice and simple PWA interface.
  • Managing your LN node liquidity swaping funds between your node and a Walletano custodial account. You can also use Walletano for swaps between LN<-->onchain (mention: seems that it doesn't support to send to Taproot addresses yet).

Main Walletano Features

  • ⚡️ Web-Based Wallet: Access your wallets anytime, anywhere through our user-friendly web app.
  • ⚡️ Lightning-Fast Transactions: Enjoy instant, low-cost transactions using the Lightning Network.
  • ⚡️ Custodial and Self-Custodial Options: Choose the level of control that suits you best.
  • ⚡️ PWA: Our progressive web app ensures a seamless experience across devices.
  • ⚡️ Multi-Wallet Management: Effortlessly manage multiple wallets with a unified and intuitive design.
  • ⚡️ Privacy-Oriented: No usernames or email addresses required, ensuring your personal information remains confidential.
  • ⚡️ Transform Corporate Email Addresses: Convert your corporate email addresses into Lightning addresses effortlessly.
  • ⚡️ Lightning Address Support: Create personalized Lightning addresses (e.g., you@walletano.com) or integrate your own corporate Lightning addresses (e.g., you@yourdomain.com).
  • ⚡️ LNURL Support: Seamlessly interact with LNURL-enabled services for enhanced functionality and versatility.
  • ⚡️ Integrated swaps between LN and onchain

Use case scenario

Let's say you are new to Bitcoin Lightning Network and you just want to start accumulating few sats received from many stacking sources (SN, nostr, donations, podcasts etc). And you still do not have the knowledge and the instruments of running your own LN node.
Or you just want to accumulate sats in a temporary location until you have a certain amount to move it into a bigger UTXO for long term stacking and also want to use a custodial DECOY to not reveal your last hop directly to all world, publicly.
Here comes Walletano, a simple web and PWA app, that can be used anonymously anywhere you want.

PLEASE pay attention to these steps!

I've seen users that lost their access because they didn't follow the exact steps and also didn't saved correctly the account access.
Yes, is a bit confusing the onboarding process, but once you get it, it make sense, because is without input any login, user, password or any personal details.
  1. Go to https://www.walletano.com/. I suggest to do it from a desktop browser and have your mobile device ready to scan and link the account.
  2. Click on "Go to wallet" (yes there is the confusion for noobs) because in that exact moment Walletano is creating a new wallet, without any input from the user. And here is the mistake that many new users did: they close the webpage without linking their new wallet to their mobile device (PWA. And you lost the access if you do not save it.
  3. Now, go to top left drawer and select "Settings". Click on the option "Link wallet". You will get a QR code to scan with your mobile device. Optional you can copy the link and save it into a password manager. The link is in this format:
https://www.walletano.com/wallet/wallet.html?def=claimwallet&wltid=<number>&claimhash=<long string hash>
THIS is your backup code! So please save it into a safe place (password manager).
  1. Now in your mobile, you can use the browser option to "Install" it as widget app (PWA). In Firefox for example, click on the 3 dots on top right and select "Add to Home screen".
  2. In case you choose to start a new wallet from your mobile directly, you will get this screen, first time you start it.
  3. Save that string indicated in this screen, if you start the Walletano account setup from the mobile device. If you started the account from a desktop browser and scan it with your mobile, is automatically saved.
  4. If you reset your browser, you can always recover it from that link mentioned before.
And that's it. Now you can personalize your displayed UI, colors, names, create more wallets, customize your LN Address. Keep in mind that each account you create in that session could have a different LN Address.
In the same session you could manage custodial and self-custodial accounts and switch between them very easily.

Conclusion and Resources

As you can see, is not so complicated to start using LN, the only "complicated" part is to save your backup strings, but with little attention and patience, you can do it, even that you are not so techy.
I hope this quick guide will be helpful for many newbies and have a smooth journey using Bitcoin Lightning Network.
This is just one of the many LN apps out there, that people should start using them and not just one, but many. Spread you stash in many locations and learn how to use them all. Each app will have its use in a specific situation, even that now you do not realize that.

More resources about Walletano:


DISCLAIMER: I am NOT paid or part of these projects. I write guides purely because I want to help newbies to get easily onboard. I test the wallets and solutions first to see if are worth it. By myself, not trying to promote anything. All my guides are free and open source, anybody can use them as they like.
Seems like a good to start with for smaller funds. Can we connect it with SN?
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Not yet. I asked them on github.
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@BTCLNAT maybe this app could be useful for your fellow cubans (in regards of the situation of bad internet connection)? Yes, is custodial, but to start in a non-KYC way to accumulate some sats is good and easy to use.
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Brother, wherever you are
MAY THE BITCOIN BE WITH YOU
I was just finishing reading your post and I was thinking exactly the same thing. Now I'm going to try first to see if it can be used from my location, I don't know if you are aware that many times our IP is blocked by the sites, nothing that can't be solved with a VPN but oh well.
Test the login and save the chain, and then share this magnificent guide.
I agree with you that you don't have to be so paranoid, anyway the big stashes go somewhere else. And as you say, I have all kinds of wallets, I try them, I know them and they always solve in a hurry.
Thanks Darth
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I'll tell you. I tried it and it was EXCELLENT, everything was fast, the custody wallet was created, I personalized the LN address, I received it, I created an invoice, too. Tremendous tool.
Thanks Darth and @Walletano.
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I'm looking to onboard family members. This might be a good way to get everyone on LN through my node. KISS is really important. Thanks for posting.
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CoinOS.io is my go to for beginners and newbies because of ease and simplicity
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CoinOS supports on chain, lightning and liquid
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Hi. I've had 2 issues with the custodial wallet.
  1. The PIN option doesn't work.
  2. I made 2 deposits of 10 SATs each to test invoice and LN address and both OK. Now I try to send back to the same source wallet to test the withdrawal and it gives me an error. I made the attempts both by invoice and by LN address, with 15 SATs, 10 SATs and 5 SATs. Always ERROR
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121 sats \ 6 replies \ @Aeiou 29 Oct
I solved this error today. Use the option that says to put your email for recovery. Then when you authenticate the email, search in Google recovery walletano and then use your email to migrate the funds to a new wallet. Then you can send the sats.
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Thanks for this detail! I updated my guide on github with your mention.
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Nice, that's the way of the force.
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search in Google recovery walletano
LOL what? You never read their FAQ and right on the front page is mentioned? https://www.walletano.com/wallet/wallet_recovery.html
Why do you have to "google recovery" when is right before your eyes?
So this could be a bug to force people to use an email for recovery just to be able to send sats. Indeed, I have an email confirmed for recovery in my walletano account, but that is nowhere mentioned as REQUIRED.
This is strange, seems like a bug. @walletano ?
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When I said search in Google recovery I mean to use your search engine and put walletano recovery. Bad habits to say the word GOOGLE. That's how I did it.
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My point is to NOT use any search engine on internet about "recovery". You have 99% chances to get a wrong link that will fuck you out. This is how people get rekt and lose their sats, by "googling". ALWAYS go and read the original page FAQ and instructions. Is right there on the main Walletano page!
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I know, but my wallet was not lost so in first place that seems not my option. Later in the process I saw that yes.
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I just zapped you from a walletano account. Worked perfectly fine. You guys down there are totally isolated and censored, sorry.
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When I try to zap you to SN, it doesn't show your LN address, it keeps the @walletano.com domain.
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If you already insert another LN address and click on send, it will send to that one. The bellow @ walletano.com one is additional if you want to send to that one.
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idk, I saw somebody else having the same error, must be something with your connection through a VPN or something like that. I have 0 issues paying.
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I sent the bugs to the developers. I'm not using VPN. But it could be the connection. You know I'm at the end of the end of the world online.
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try to use a desktop browser and when you get that error, press CTRL+SHFT+I Then you can see the details of the error in the debug console.
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Excellent information Friend @Darthcoin thanks for helping me and helping everyone to include us in the world of Bitcoin Lightning Network. I have recently started my way down the rabbit hole and I have been able to see that there is quite a bit of content to read and study.
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21 sats \ 2 replies \ @Taft 28 Oct
Thanks for writing and sharing the review/guide. If an LN application is tested and suggested by an experienced Bitcoiner, people will put more trust in it, even though in the Bitcoin world we say "Don't trust, verify".
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You do not have to "trust" me. Test it for yourself based on my guides.
All my guides are purely to present in a simple way how to use different solutions. My focus is on listening people what they need in their day to day life and then I am looking for the specific app / solution and test it as it would be their use case, to see which one is the best. Then I present it in a nice simple guide.
This Walletano app, I tested specifically for a friend that is traveling a lot and just wanted a simple on-the-go LN account, sometimes even anonymously to be used, switching accounts with ease. So I found this Walletano for him and he's very happy now using it.
Sometimes people are afraid to start testing, so I do it for many and sometimes revealing new features that they didn't know about.
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21 sats \ 0 replies \ @Taft 28 Oct
You do not have to "trust" me. Test it for yourself based on my guides.
Exactly. It would have been much harder for a non-experienced bitcoin user like me without the guides written by you and other experienced bitcoiners. Of course, at the end of the day, the responsibility will be mine.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @nym 28 Oct
Thanks Darth.
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Didn't work.
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I can receive but i can't send, I tried from your link. I don't know why this happens @DarthCoin
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you can't send for various reasons:
  • destination is not online
  • destination is not a valid LN invoice
  • you are trying to pay something else
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Look at this
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for such a small amount, sending to SN you should use cowboy credits (aka sats from SN account). For meaningless 5 sats you would pay more fees and sometimes could be blocked by the peers forwarding that payment.
I just tried sending 123 sats to my SN LN address and worked perfectly fine. Please learn how LN works behind the scenes.
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Look at this, I tried with sending 121 sats. The telegram group is dead, they don't respond. I need your help if You are willing to give it to me.
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try any other destination, your own LN wallets, not SN. I really don't know why is not working for you but is working for me.
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Neither do they, I created another wallet in another device and nothing, the same.
I am here with the same problem a long time ago
I just zapped you 10 sats using a walletano account. Idk where did you tried to send that payment.
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A Wallet of Satoshi. From there I tested the sending to Walletano.
But the connection here right now is a choking hazard
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0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Aeiou 28 Oct
I tried to contact walletanonsupport and nothing. The telegram support group is dead too. Nothing since last year https://t.me/WalletanoSupport
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The same with the Telegram: [https://t.me/walletano]. the don't respond anymore.
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deleted by author
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