A sovereign Bitcoin node, built in Rust

Full consensus validation, embedded Lightning, Nostr integration, and Lightning-gated APIs — in a single binary. Verify everything. Trust nothing.

Quick Start

$ git clone https://github.com/refined-element/BitcoinWolfe.git

$ cd BitcoinWolfe && cargo build --release

$ ./target/release/wolfe

INFO starting BitcoinWolfe v0.1.0 chain="mainnet"

INFO consensus engine initialized kernel_height=0

INFO RPC server listening addr="127.0.0.1:8332"

INFO P2P manager started listen="0.0.0.0:8333"

INFO Nostr bridge initialized relays=2

# Node is running. All systems operational.

Ten crates. One binary.

Modular workspace where each crate does one thing well. Compile what you need, swap what you don't.

Consensus wolfe-consensus

Full block validation through libbitcoinkernel — the same engine that powers Bitcoin Core, extracted as a library.

libbitcoinkernel v0.2

Lightning wolfe-lightning

Embedded LDK node with channel management, BOLT11 invoices, payment routing, and L402 token generation.

LDK v0.2.2

Wallet wolfe-wallet

Descriptor-based BDK wallet with BIP39 seed generation, BIP84 native SegWit, PSBT workflows, and optional SQLCipher encryption.

BDK v1.1

P2P Network wolfe-p2p

Async peer management with BIP324 v2 encrypted transport, DNS seed discovery, and ban tracking.

BIP324 + Tokio

Nostr wolfe-nostr

Publish block announcements and fee oracle data to Nostr relays. NIP-98 event-based authentication for RPC access.

NIP-01 / NIP-98

RPC & REST wolfe-rpc

Bitcoin Core compatible JSON-RPC, REST endpoints, L402 Lightning-gated APIs, and dual auth (Basic + NIP-98).

Axum

Storage wolfe-store

ACID key-value persistence with redb. Headers, peer records, metadata, and Lightning state in separate databases.

redb

Mempool wolfe-mempool

Fee-rate sorted transaction pool with RBF support, size eviction, configurable OP_RETURN policy, and fee histogram.

Full RBF

Types wolfe-types

Shared types, configuration parsing, error definitions, and peer info snapshots used across all crates.

TOML Config

Node wolfe-node

Main binary and event loop orchestrator. Wires all crates together, handles shutdown, progress reporting, and block pruning.

Tokio Runtime

Everything you need. Nothing you don't.

Each feature earns its place. No bloat, no abstractions for their own sake.

Embedded Lightning node

Open channels, create invoices, route payments — all from the same binary. LDK runs in-process with direct access to the wallet for channel funding and on-chain sweeps. No separate daemon needed.

BOLT11 invoice creation and payment
Cooperative and force channel closes
Automatic wallet-funded channel opens
L402 micropayment API gating
Configurable channel size limits

// Open a Lightning channel $ curl -X POST localhost:8332 -d '{ "method": "ln_openchannel", "params": [ "02acb6...node_id", 100000, 0 ] }' // Create a BOLT11 invoice $ curl -X POST localhost:8332 -d '{ "method": "ln_invoice", "params": [50000, "coffee"] }'

L402 Lightning-gated APIs

Monetize your node's data with stateless micropayments. Clients pay a Lightning invoice to access premium endpoints — block data, fee estimates, mempool stats. No accounts. No subscriptions. Just sats.

HTTP 402 Payment Required flow
HMAC-SHA256 stateless tokens
Configurable price per request
Time-bounded token expiry
Secret derived from Lightning seed

# 1. Request gated endpoint GET /l402/api/fees → 402 Payment Required WWW-Authenticate: L402 macaroon="dG9rZW4..." invoice="lnbc100n1..." # 2. Pay the invoice via Lightning # 3. Access with token GET /l402/api/fees Authorization: L402 dG9rZW4... → 200 OK { fee_histogram: [...] }

Native Nostr integration

Your node speaks Nostr natively. Broadcast validated blocks, publish real-time mempool fee data, and authenticate RPC requests with Nostr event signatures instead of passwords.

Block announcements (kind 33333)
Mempool fee oracle (kind 33334)
NIP-98 HTTP authentication
Persistent identity with profile metadata
Dynamic relay management via RPC

// Block announcement event (kind 33333) { "kind": 33333, "content": { "height": 940601, "hash": "00000000...f005ff", "timestamp": 1710403200, "tx_count": 3847, "size": 1832456 }, "tags": [ ["d", "block"], ["t", "bitcoin"], ["network", "mainnet"] ] }

Secure descriptor wallet

BDK-powered wallet with BIP39 mnemonic generation, BIP84 native SegWit addresses, and full PSBT support. Create wallets via RPC — seed phrases are returned once via RPC.

BIP39 12-word mnemonic generation
BIP84 native SegWit (bc1q...)
PSBT creation, signing, finalization
Optional SQLCipher encryption at rest
Import existing wallets from seed phrase
Full blockchain rescan via RPC

// Create a new wallet $ curl -X POST localhost:8332 -d '{ "method": "createwallet" }' { "mnemonic": "abandon ability ...", "message": "BACKUP THIS SEED PHRASE — it will NOT be shown again" } // Import from existing seed $ curl -X POST localhost:8332 -d '{ "method": "importwallet", "params": ["word1 word2 ..."] }'

Bitcoin Core compatible. And then some.

Drop-in JSON-RPC compatibility where it matters. Extended with Lightning, Nostr, and wallet management.

Blockchain

getblockchaininfo

getblockcount

getbestblockhash

getblock

getnetworkinfo

getpeerinfo

getmempoolinfo

getrawmempool

Transactions

getrawtransaction

sendrawtransaction

walletcreatefundedpsbt

walletprocesspsbt

Wallet

createwallet

importwallet

getbalance

getwalletinfo

getnewaddress

listtransactions

rescanblockchain

Lightning

ln_getinfo

ln_connect

ln_openchannel

ln_closechannel

ln_invoice

ln_pay

ln_listchannels

ln_listpeers

Nostr

nostr_getinfo

nostr_publish

nostr_addrelay

nostr_removerelay

nostr_listrelays

REST Endpoints

GET /api/info

GET /api/blockchain

GET /api/mempool

GET /api/peers

GET /api/lightning/*

GET /l402/api/*

One file. Full control.

Everything in wolfe.toml. Enable what you need, leave the rest.

wolfe.toml Example

# ── Network ────────────────────────────────────────────── [network] chain = "mainnet" # mainnet | testnet | signet | regtest # ── P2P ────────────────────────────────────────────────── [p2p] listen = "0.0.0.0:8333" max_outbound = 10 prefer_v2_transport = true # BIP324 encrypted connections # ── Wallet (off by default) ────────────────────────────── [wallet] enabled = true # create via RPC: createwallet # ── Lightning (off by default) ─────────────────────────── [lightning] enabled = true listen_port = 9735 alias = "BitcoinWolfe" color = "ff9900" # ── L402 Paywall (off by default) ──────────────────────── [l402] enabled = true # requires Lightning price_sats = 10 # ── Nostr (off by default) ─────────────────────────────── [nostr] enabled = true block_announcements = true fee_oracle = true # ── Metrics (on by default) ────────────────────────────── [metrics] enabled = true # Prometheus on :9332/metrics

A sovereign Bitcoin node, built in Rust