BlueWallet Closing Lightning Network Node on Bitcoin Network
- BlueWallet customers must withdraw their sats by April 30th.
- There are about 42 BTC ($1 million) available in the popular Lightning Network wallet.
According to a formal announcement, BlueWallet is closing its lightning node connection to Lndhub. In order to continue utilizing BlueWallet’s lighting services on the Bitcoin Lightning Network, customers will need to connect to nodes when the company ends its custodial lightning operations.
The Lightning Network is a Bitcoin-based second-layer payment system. Little sums of Bitcoin (called satoshis or sats) may be sent from one person to another using the Lightning Network and a lightning wallet.
Customers Must Withdraw by April 30th
There are about 42 BTC ($1 million) available in the popular Lightning Network wallet known as “Blue Wallet.” According to data from Amboss, the biggest channel can handle transactions for a total of 4 BTC ($95,000.) BlueWallet is a highly-rated lightning wallet used by many notable Bitcoin users.
Withdrawing sats will still be allowed, however, users will no longer be able to create or reload lightning wallets using the LndHub node. BlueWallet has made it public knowledge that users who have sats linked to BlueWallet’s lightning node should immediately remove them. BlueWallet customers must withdraw their sats by April 30th, when the service will be shut down, to avoid losing them.
Standard Bitcoin wallets, however, will not be impacted. The website for BlueWallet now states, that it will only support self-custody solutions, which may be seen as a hindrance to Lightning Network adoption by some. The new policy is meant to encourage self-custody and decentralized approaches.
