Japanese Startup Built The World's First Android Lightning Wallet With Bitcoin Full Node

14/12/2019

'Lightning Network' is considered the transactions for the future of cryptocurrencies.

It allows instant payments, where parties won't have to worry about block confirmation times, more secured, faster, cheaper, scalable, and also cross-blockchains.

And here, Japan-based startup Nayuta announced the launch of what it claims is the world's first application capable of utilizing a “Bitcoin full node and SPV [simplified payment verification] node” on mobile devices.

With the Nayuta Android app, users can tap into the payment system in one of two ways: by using the baked-in Bitcoin "full node" for added security or, they can switch to a SPV version (Neutrino), which isn't quite as secure, but takes up much less space on the users' device.

Nayuta claims it is the first developer to add a full node to its wallet, making the esoteric sovereignty-preserving technology a bit easier to use.

Nayuta app
Using the Nayuta Wallet app on any Android device, users can start playing with a Bitcoin full node and Lightning Network. (Credit: Nayuta)

According to Nayuta on its news web page:

"Generally speaking, running a full node gives users improved privacy, security, and self-sovereignty. A full node usually runs on a PC due to the necessity of the high-performance CPU, broadband Internet connection with high speed, and large storage. However, recently some ideas on running it on smartphone have came out."

Nayuta said on a Medium post that it used a fork of the project ABCore, which makes it easier for it to run a full node on Android devices.

"Using a full node is the only way to really know if you received bitcoin, if you don't use a full node you are always trusting somebody to a degree, whether that would be the wallet company's node or the miners," said Christian Moss, Nayuta's project leader and mobile app developer.

Full nodes can take hours to download, but they're the most secure way of transacting Bitcoin as users don't have to trust anyone to ensure that they have the correct transaction data. Making a full node easy to run has long been a primary goal for many Bitcoin developers in the community.

In addition to allowing users to choose either a full node or a SPV node, there's what Nayuta calls a third "hybrid" mode, which allows the wallet to automatically bounce between the two.

“The full node Lightning wallet is on mobile, so when people are out and about using the mobile wallet and they have limited data and battery life, it makes sense to use the hybrid. Then, when they are at home with their mobile phone charging and on WiFi, the full node can start syncing and validating the blockchain,” Moss explained.

He is optimistic it will only get easier to run a Bitcoin full node on a mobile device over time.

"Whilst this current implementation of a full node lightning wallet is not as super user-friendly we think that research and development in this direction is a no-brainer for Bitcoin. [In] the future, as smartphones become more powerful, running a full node could have a similar UX experience as running a light client wallet," he said

Nayuta

The Japanese company Nayuta is best known for releasing the fourth Lightning Network client which operates on the grounds of the BOLT protocol, Ptarmigan. The company has published the installation kit for its wallet on GitHub.

All Android devices should be compatible with Nayuta’s wallet software, with the full validating node automatically get pruned according to the device's storage space availability.

Previously, running Bitcoin and Lightning nodes required static hardware and a remote connection. But thanks to the contributions of Blockstream developer Lawrence Nahum, who worked extensively on the ABCore project, the full Bitcoin nodes can run on any Android phone with enough storage space.

Nayuta's app was first introduced back in October 2019 during The Lightning Conference in Berlin, installed in HTC’s Exodus 1s.

What should be noted here is that, Nayuta’s wallet doesn’t make use of the proprietary Ptarmigan Lightning implementation and instead uses the more popular LND.

"This product is actually separate from Ptarmigan," Moss clarified. ”Ptarmigan is for IOT devices, whereas this new release is a mobile app running on Android.”