On-chain Bitcoin wallets and self-custody Lightning wallets will not be affected, according to a blog post by the Bitcoin mobile app company.
BlueWallet, a Bitcoin wallet with apps in the iOS and Android stores, has announced that it will end its Lightning wallet custodial service on 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 nearing completion. While you can still withdraw your sats, it will no longer be possible to create new Lightning wallets or top up existing ones on the LndHub node.”
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 affected by this change, nor will self-customized Lightning wallets, where users connect to their own Lndhub.
“Lndhub started out as a weekend experiment on a new fringe technology that was 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 served its purpose in its current form.”
Users will still be able to access Lndhub as a self-hosted software and solution, they will be able to connect to their own LndHub from BlueWallet or other software that supports the LndHub API specification.
The post concludes with an upbeat take, saying that “This may sound like bad news, but this essentially means that BlueWallet will only support self-custody solutions in the future. This is good for bitcoin and BlueWallet users.”
