FAQs

There is no limit to the number of authorized users you can add to your account.

You can go to your account settings at any time and manage your team. By clicking on a teammate’s name, you can easily change their role (Administrator, Operator, or Viewer), or even deactivate their access.

Account passwords are recoverable through the “Forgot your password” flow on the sign-in page. Additionally, Lightspark provides a Funds Recovery Kit which allows customers to receive a file containing recovery transactions. This can be set up through the Accounts page. If you have set up your Funds Recovery Kit, you can use this to publish on-chain transactions to Bitcoin L1 and recover your funds - with no interaction from Lightspark.  For more details, please see the Fund Recovery Kit page here https://www.lightspark.com/recovery-kit#important-notes.

You can close your Lightspark accounts by following the instructions under https://app.lightspark.com/account

There are multiple ways to remove money from your account. From the dashboard, select “Withdraw” and enter the destination Bitcoin address. Funds can also be transferred on Lightning to another Lightning wallet through the Send flow. Additionally, if Lightspark services were to be seriously disrupted or become permanently unavailable, you could use the Funds Recovery Kit (which needs to be correctly set up in the account settings before it can be used). For more details, please see the Fund Recovery Kit page here https://www.lightspark.com/recovery-kit#important-notes.

Lightspark provides a Funds Recovery Kit which allows customers to receive a file containing recovery transactions. This can be set up through the Accounts page. Once you have set up your Funds Recovery Kit, if Lightspark services were to be seriously disrupted or become permanently unavailable, you could use this Funds Recovery Kit to publish on-chain transactions to Bitcoin L1 and recover your funds - with no interaction from Lightspark.  We do not recommend using the Fund Recovery Kit in the event of a minor or temporary service disruption.  For more details, please see the Fund Recovery Kit page here https://www.lightspark.com/recovery-kit#important-notes.

Lightning payments can be made through the Send flow on the Lightspark dashboard or through the API/SDK.  Bitcoin L1 payments can be made through the Withdraw flow on the dashboard or API/SDK.

The first 30 days are free. After this, you will be billed the platform fee for your Service Tier at the beginning of each month (the first month will be prorated if you don’t sign up on the first day of the month), as well as the overage fees from the previous billing period, if any.

You can pay with a credit or debit card, in which case we will charge your card automatically - five days after we issue your invoice. Additionally you can pay with Lightning or bitcoin - your invoice will include a link which will generate the amount due in sats and provide you with the Lightning or bitcoin address to use. Alternatively the invoice you receive will also include a link which will generate the bitcoin payment amount. If paying by Lightning or bitcoin, the generated spot price will remain valid for 24 hours before you will be required to generate a new invoice through the link.

Your available balance is the total amount of funds you are able to send over the Lightning Network, which may differ from your total balance due to a variety of reasons. These could include: all your funds not being allocated to the Lightning Network, funds held for channel closes, funds held for future Lightning Network operations, or pending fund transfers that have not been confirmed.

When making a payment, the Send funds flow will show the available balance.  This is the balance available to send on Lightning.  When withdrawing funds on Bitcoin L1 via the Withdraw flow, the available balance for withdrawals will be displayed.

The most common cause of failed payments is setting too low of a fee limit.  Some Lightning wallets require higher fees or minimum amounts to be sent.  During the Send flow, the fee amount can be set to a custom value.  The fee amount is not necessarily the amount that will be paid, but instead is the maximum amount that could be paid for fees.  Lightspark strives to send over low-cost routes but will attempt to use higher-cost routes if needed and the fee limit accommodates the higher fee.

Yes we will send you invoices during the first week of every month, these will explain your account usage. This is also available in our account dashboard. You are also able to reach out to us at support@lightspark.com with any questions.

Your available balance to send is the total amount of funds you are able to send over the Lightning Network, which may differ from your total balance due to a variety of reasons. These could include: all your funds not being allocated to the Lightning Network, funds held for channel closes, funds held for future Lightning Network operations, or pending fund transfers that have not been confirmed. 

Your available balance to withdraw is the total amount of funds that have been confirmed (either on Lightning or on the Bitcoin blockchain). Please note that when you actually withdraw your funds, you may incur Bitcoin layer 1 transaction fees.

You can add bitcoin/sats to your account in two ways:  you can send bitcoin from another Bitcoin blockchain address you control to your mainnet Lightning Node’s bitcoin layer 1 address. To do so, select “Add Funds”.  You will be presented with a QR code and a Bitcoin address. You can use either the QR code or the address to send bitcoin from another Bitcoin wallet. Or you can send bitcoin to your mainnet Lightning Node over Lightning from another Lightning-enabled wallet.  To do so, select “Request” to generate a Lightning invoice, then pay this invoice from the other Lightning-enabled wallet.

Yes, you can reset your Lightspark account password through the “Forgot your password” flow on the sign-in page. 

However, the password/key for your real-money, mainnet Lightning node–which is different from your Lightspark account password–is not recoverable, as Lightspark does not keep and does not have access to an unencrypted copy of this key.  You should therefore maintain and store your mainnet Lightning node password securely. If you lose this password, you will not be able to access your funds and Lightspark will not be able to recover this password for you. 

Our customers can set up the built-in Funds Recovery Kit. The Funds Recovery Kit, which is updated after each transaction, allows any Lightspark customer to move their funds to another wallet or service provider at any time, including in a case where they forget their Lightspark real-money, mainnet Lightning node password/key.   For more details, please see the Fund Recovery Kit page here https://www.lightspark.com/recovery-kit#important-notes.

Lightspark utilizes operation signing to make the services easier to use, while still providing our customers with full control over their funds. 

During Lightning node creation, a customer generates an operation signing keypair (OSK). The customer shares the OSK public key with their node via the Lightspark APIs. The OSK private key is encrypted by the customer and stored encrypted on Lightspark’s infrastructure. This allows Lightspark to support account recovery without ever having the customer’s plaintext private key.

A separate wallet key is held within the node’s software and is encrypted on disk. It is held only in the memory of that node, which will process only those instructions validly signed by the customer with its OSK private key. The wallet key must be available on the node to sign data on the Lightning network. This wallet key never leaves the node. Lightspark will not access this wallet key and is not able to assist with unlocking the node if the customer loses their OSK.

To initiate money movement, the customer generates and signs a funds transfer request and passes the signed request through Lightspark APIs to their node. Within the node software, the signed payload is validated to ensure the request was initiated by the customer and has not been modified. This also provides non-repudiation of requests. The node then performs the requested operation using the wallet key. 

Lightspark customers fully hold the Lightning keys on their infrastructure while Lightspark manages the node infrastructure. This provides the best of both worlds - where customers have control of the keys, while Lightspark provides reliable, highly available nodes with AI/ML-optimized routing, inbound liquidity, and well-connectedness with the entire network. All in all, it is an easy-to-integrate and simple package that abstracts the complexity of the Lightning Network. This mode of operation requires some interactivity between the customer’s clients and their Lightning node but ensures that the wallet keys are not held on the node; instead, the wallet keys are held only on the customer client side.

UTC but customers’ browsers will typically translate this to the customer’s local timezone.

Lightspark conducts screenings for US economic sanctions for jurisdictions subject to comprehensive US sanctions by OFAC.

When sending, receiving, or transferring funds over the Lightning Network, you can currently use only bitcoin. You can view the value of the funds transferred in bitcoin, satoshis, or an estimated value in USD. The conversion rate is calculated on an hourly time interval from the Coinbase or Kraken API and thus is not meant to be a conversion price or price quote. 

Our engineering team is eager to hear your feedback - please send an email to support@lightspark.com.

UMAs are ‘human-readable’ addresses — like email addresses — that you can use to send or receive money. UMAs are offered via wallets, exchanges, and banks. The UMA standard is a messaging standard that enables interoperability between these wallets, exchanges, and banks so that users can use their UMAs to send money to anyone with an UMA-enabled account.  

With an UMA-enabled account, you can send funds to anyone else with an UMA in any currency supported by your wallet providers.  UMAs are an easy solution for sending and receiving money across borders, simplifying the complicated process of money transfers for people and enabling instant, low-cost payments.

UMA is an addressing and messaging standard that uses the Bitcoin Lightning Network and Lightning Addresses for fast, efficient payments. Wallets, exchanges, and banks use UMA to enable real-time, low-cost payments for their customers. UMA enables interoperable payments between users of UMA-enabled accounts in any supported currency.

People can sign up for their UMA through any preferred wallet, exchange, or bank that supports UMA and Lightning payments. Recipients must set up their UMA and have an account at one of these service providers to send or receive money using their UMA.

Several wallets, exchanges, and banks already allow users to claim their UMAs, and more are coming soon - you can find the first set of providers on UMA.me. If UMAs are not yet available where you live, you can sign up on the site to be notified when a wallet, exchange, or bank in your country goes live.