Russell

business things @lightning... sometimes VC stuff

[Russell @russeIIls]

Some (slightly overdue) personal news. I've joined the team @lightning, focused on business development, and partnerships to bring #bitcoin to anyone who uses money ⚡️

👇 🧵👇

[Lightning Labs⚡️🌐 @lightning]

Announcing LND v0.21: Grown Up, Sped Up, Locked Down 🌱

The 21st release lands on the number every bitcoiner knows 🟠

Onion messaging, private message relay without revealing sender or route 🧅

Simple taproot channels hit production for on-chain privacy 🌳

Native SQL and better sync for faster queries and startup ⏩

Read more and upgrade today: https://t.co/DZwJEIfhof

[Russell @russeIIls]

and then get hacked 💀💀

[Russell @russeIIls]

lol the same ppl that say the lightning network is complicated put their money into the rube goldberg machines of DeFi

[Give Me LIGHTNING @givelightning]

So many companies have launched on the Lightning Network wince we starting tracking it @ https://t.co/RA5smDSftS that we decided to make an X page to help us keep up.

This is it. Hi. ⚡

[Russell @russeIIls]

@zigzagxc Would be interested in learning more. Will DM

[Russell @russeIIls]

@lightningmodeAI yes

[Russell @russeIIls]

https://t.co/kzYE92Q752

[Lightning Mode AI @lightningmodeAI]

https://t.co/9nABluETzD

[Lightning Labs⚡️🌐 @lightning]

L402 is the standard for agentic commerce on Lightning. A machine-scale protocol built for the AI economy.

In this video, we show how agents can use L402 to pay for API access. No intermediaries, no logins, just bitcoin-native authentication. And no humans required. 🤖

[Lightning Labs⚡️🌐 @lightning]

We're hiring a Head of Developer Product Marketing!

Shape the messaging to the dev community about why bitcoin matters for humans and agents. Develop strategies that move as quickly as AI. Ship and iterate to inspire builders to build.

Be the bridge that connects Lightning to the broader universe. 🌉

Apply here: https://t.co/jdNiBNzrWl

[Russell @russeIIls]

@bitcoinpolicy

[Russell @russeIIls]

in recently discovered cave drawings, archeologists find evidence suggesting that Bitcoin has always been the preferred currency of agentic commerce

[Russell @russeIIls]

DeFi be like "our bridge is safe" and then the bridge looks like this

[Lightning Mode AI @lightningmodeAI]

We gave an AI agent one URL and 6 simple instructions.

It earned real Bitcoin, hired another agent, and withdrew sats to a real wallet.

All on Lightning Network mainnet.

1. It read the docs at https://t.co/rdFfB5ggof
2. Registered itself. Got its own Lightning wallet.
3. Discovered an L402 service. Earned 50 real sats.
4. Posted a 20 sat bounty to hire another agent. Escrow locked.
5. Checked its balance. 30 sats available.
6. Withdrew 30 sats to a real wallet using Lightning Network.

No human moved a single sat.

The stack:

@lightning LND for the node
litd for per-agent wallets
LNC for remote connections
Macaroon Bakery for cryptographic identity
Aperture for L402 payment gating
lightning-agent-tools + @AnthropicAI Claude Code @claudeai

Running on @getumbrel via @Cloudflare Tunnel. At home. On a @Raspberry_Pi .
Withdraw tested with @speed_wallet.

This is what we're building: agentic circular economies on Lightning Network.

Agents earn by doing real work.
Agents spend by hiring other agents.
Agents withdraw to any wallet on earth.

The agentic economy doesn't need a new protocol. It needs Lightning Network!

[Lightning Labs⚡️🌐 @lightning]

Lightning Terminal is a web dashboard for managing Lightning nodes at scale. Automatically manage routing fees and channel opens. Visualize routing data. Monitor your node from anywhere.

We just shipped passkey support for device-based auth and persistent sessions. Authenticate once. Stay logged in across page reloads. No passwords needed.

Connect your node and build the future with bitcoin. https://t.co/ZwdQUa7kTM

[Russell @russeIIls]

dw folks, no need to wait on line.. just start using lightning and L402.

https://t.co/ZtbWr7Inrc

[Lightning Mode AI @lightningmodeAI]

Everyone's building AI agents.

Almost nobody is asking: how do they pay for things?

No credit card. No bank account. No human clicking "subscribe."

The answer was hidden in the internet's source code since 1997. Lightning Network activated it in 2020. Nobody noticed.

Until now.

🧵👇

[Russell @russeIIls]

If @nycgov put me in charge