Lightning Pay Wallet Overview
By Lightning Pay
Bitcoin was created to be better money — money you can own, control, and use without relying on permission from a bank or a company.
We started Lightning Pay because we believe:
- People should be able to save their money without its value evaporating via inflation, forcing them to become part-time investors.
- Money should be used at the sole discretion of its owner, and not be used to enforce rules, project power, or censor.
- Money should be able to be sent directly from one person to another, instead of being a means by which large entities extract value from society because they have exclusive permission to do so.
- People should not have all of their transaction data collected, shared, and sold without their permission. A basic level of privacy should be inherent to our money.
The Lightning Pay Wallet is designed to help you do exactly that, without needing to become a technical expert.
This article explains how the Lightning Pay Wallet works at a practical level: what it does, what it doesn’t do, and how it helps you save and spend bitcoin with confidence.
Lightning Pay Wallet Overview
The Lightning Pay Wallet is designed to make bitcoin usable as money — not just something you buy and hold on an exchange.
From the start, we made a set of deliberate design choices about how the wallet should work. Those choices prioritise ownership, everyday usability, and simplicity, without sacrificing the core properties that make bitcoin valuable in the first place.
Below are the key qualities of the Lightning Pay Wallet, and why we built it this way.
Self-custody by design
You control your bitcoin. Lightning Pay cannot move it without your participation, and your balance is not an IOU. We chose self-custody because better money is money you can actually own.
→ Learn more about custody and control
Enhanced privacy
The wallet is built to limit unnecessary data collection and reduce information leakage where possible, without making the experience difficult to use.
→ Wallet privacy
On-chain and Lightning payments
The wallet supports both secure on-chain bitcoin and fast Lightning payments. This lets you save, settle, and spend bitcoin in the way that makes the most sense for each situation.
→ How on-chain payments work | How Lightning payments work
Low fees and reduced complexity
We’ve designed the wallet to minimise fees and remove unnecessary technical steps. You shouldn’t need to manage channels, liquidity, or advanced settings to use bitcoin day to day.
→ Fees explained
Embedded exchange features
Buying, selling, Bill Pay and automating bitcoin purchases are built directly into the wallet. This reduces friction while keeping your bitcoin under your control.
Where this leaves you
This guide expands on each of these topics in more detail. You can read the articles in order, or jump straight to the parts that matter most to you.
Bitcoin was designed to be better money.
The Lightning Pay Wallet is designed to help you use it that way.