BlueWallet To Sunset Custodial Lightning Wallet Service

On-chain Bitcoin wallets and self-custody Lightning wallets will not be impacted, according to a blog posted by the mobile Bitcoin app company.

BlueWallet, a Bitcoin wallet with apps in both the iOS and Android stores, has announced that it will end its custodial Lightning wallet service by April 30, 2023.

In a blog post, the company explained that “Today, we are announcing that the Lightning node, Lndhub.io, where BlueWallet provides Lightning wallets to its users, is sunsetting. While you can still withdraw your sats, creating new or refilling existing Lightning wallets on LndHub node will no longer be possible.”

The post proceeds to request that users remove funds from their BlueWallet custodial Lightning wallets as soon as possible. It is also made clear that regular BlueWallet Bitcoin wallets will not be impacted by this change, nor will self-custody Lightning wallets –– where users connect to their own Lndhub.

“Lndhub started as a weekend experiment on a new fringe technology barely used at the time called the Lightning Network,” the blog explains. “Today, with the availability of more mainstream services offering scalable solutions, Lndhub has fulfilled its purpose in its current form.”

Users will still be able to access Lndhub as a software and self-hosted solution, able to connect to their own LndHub from BlueWallet or other software that supports the LndHub API specification.

The post concludes with an optimistic take, saying that “This may sound like bad news, but this essentially means BlueWallet going forward will only support self-custody solutions. This is good for bitcoin and BlueWallet users.”