Creating custom Lightning Addresses with ZBD

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Contributor

Thanks to our contributor for this guide, Santos Hernandez.

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Goal

The purpose of this workshop is to help you get your own custom static charge and Lightning Address for your own domain, using Python, Django, and ZBD API.

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Audience

This write-up is for a hobbyist or beyond developer who wants their own custom QR code and Lightning Address.

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What this unlocks

Custom Lightning Address App Screenshot

You’ll get this awesome landing page. You’ll create a Static Charge QR code to receive money to as well as an internet identifier called Lightning Address to receive money to.

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Prerequisites

You would need the following:

• Access to the ZBD API.
  • If you don’t have an account, register an account at here.
• A basic understanding of programming.

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Static Charge & Lightning Address Explained

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Use Cases

Static Charges and Lightning Addresses are excellent for easily receiving payments. Static Charges can be set such that they can be used an unlimited number of times and they don’t expire. So it makes receiving payments easy.

You can get your own Lightning Address and Static Charge that is tied to your own username and domain.

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How do Static Charges work?

A Static Charge is actually a URL that is used to process incoming payment requests by returning an invoice to the app requesting to make a payment for a specific amount. The app will then take the invoice and pay it.

Example of Static Charge

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Lightning Address Explained

santos@zbd.gg - it looks like an example but it’s used to receive money to. It could also be an email at the same time. Whoa~.

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Return Lightning Address metadata using Django

In this tutorial we’ll setup a Django project that allows you to receive payment to your own lightning address.

⛔ WARNING! THIS WILL OVERWRITE ANY FILES YOU CURRENTLY HAVE FOR THE DOMAIN!

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Getting started

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Install Python

If you already have python installed, skip this section.

You can download and install python here. Select your relevant operating system and install.

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Install VS Code

If you already have a code editor installed, skip this section.

This application is a Code Editor that will make it much easier to manage your code. Install it here.

To get started quickly, you can clone the repository where most things are already setup.

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Installing Requirements

In your terminal in VS Code, clone the following repository by running this command:

git clone https://github.com/zantoshi/lightning-address-app

Next, install the requirements by running the following command:

cd lightning-address-app && pip install -r requirements.txt

If you get an error try running:

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

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Plug and Play

Now that you have the codebase setup and the requirements installed, let’s connect your Dev Dashboard account.

Create a .env file with the following config.

ZEBEDEE_API_KEY="API_KEY_GOES_HERE"
LIGHTNING_ADDRESS="YOUR_LIGHTNING_ADDRESS_HERE"
MY_DOMAIN="DOMAIN.com"
STATIC_CHARGE_ID="YOUR_STATIC_CHARGE_ID_FROM_ZEBEDEE_HERE"
STATIC_CHARGE="INPUT_URI_HERE"
SECRET_KEY="YOUR_SECRET_KEY_HERE"

We will be updating this throughout the tutorial.

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Creating a Static Charge

The ZBD API makes static charge creation very easy. Here is a high-level example of the URL, payload, and the response from the API.

Using the ZBD Doc Portal, send a POST Request to the following URL with the payload beneath it after plugging in your API key.

⭐ Be sure to determine what you want your lightning address to be and update it in the the identifier field. Mine will be sats@santos.lol.

Navigate to the Doc Portal. Add this to your payload AFTER changing the identifier , description , identifier, and succesMessage.

{
  "identifier": "sats@santos.lol",
  "description": "This is my Static Charge and Lightning Address.",
  "successMessage": "Thank you for supporting me!",
  "allowedSlots": null,
  "minAmount": "1000",
  "maxAmount": "100000000"
}

Input the data in the applicable parameter fields.

MAKE SURE TO UPDATE THE PARAMETERS OTHERWISE YOUR LIGHTNING ADDRESS WON’T WORK!

Grab your Project’s apikey from the ZBD Dev Dashboard.

Add your apikey in the Header in the API Reference.

You should get a response that looks something like this.

{
  "message": "Successfully created Static Charge.",
  "data": {
    "id": "d94e7893-5a1a-4ef9-b2c2-e549fc6b1e0e",
    "unit": "msats",
    "slots": 0,
    "minAmount": "10000",
    "maxAmount": "100000000",
    "identifier": "sats@santos.lol",
    "createdAt": "2023-05-14T20:55:36.259Z",
    "expiresAt": null,
    "internalId": null,
    "description": "This is my Static Charge and Lightning Address.",
    "callbackUrl": null,
    "allowedSlots": null,
    "successMessage": "Thank you for supporting me!",
    "status": "active",
    "invoice": {
      "request": "lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ctsdyh85etzv4jx2efwd9hj7a3s9aex2ut4v4ehgttnw3shg6tr943ksctjvajhxtmy8y6x2dec8yej6dtpx9sj6dr9vcuj6c3jvvez6ef4xsukvcekvgck2vr9ppvamy",
      "uri": "lightning:lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ctsdyh85etzv4jx2efwd9hj7a3s9aex2ut4v4ehgttnw3shg6tr943ksctjvajhxtmy8y6x2dec8yej6dtpx9sj6dr9vcuj6c3jvvez6ef4xsukvcekvgck2vr9ppvamy"
    }
  }
}

After sending your POST request, you should receive the following back as a response. You’ll want to save the id that you get back. We’ll use this to support your own Lightning Address.

You can also save the data.invoice.uri field so that you can turn it into a QR code.

lightning:lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ctsdyh85etzv4jx2efwd9hj7a3s9aex2ut4v4ehgttnw3shg6tr943ksctjvajhxte5x43nyv34vgcj6vpjxf3z6drpxvmj6wfcvsmz6dtpx56nvwrxxuuxgvf3uzvpfy

Now each time that you receive payments to your Lightning Address, your ZBD project will get balance increases.

Update your .env file with the ID and the URI.

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Creating a Secret Key for Django

Run the following command in your terminal.

python -c 'from django.core.management.utils import get_random_secret_key; print(get_random_secret_key())'

Copy the output and update your .env file with the output for SECRET_KEY.

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Deploying your app to Namecheap

If you don’t have a domain and hosting already, you can sign-up for one at namecheap.com. Once you have a domain and hosting, you can proceed.

Note: I am going to assume that you have purchased your domain and have cPanel hosting.

Update your .env file with your own domain. It must be without http, https, or www. For example, my domain is santos.lol therefore I use that.

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Create Python App

Log into your cPanel account. Search for or select Setup Python App .

Click Create Application

Setup the configuration as follows.

Select Python Version: 3.8.16 .

Select Application URL: This is the domain you wish to use for your lightning address. Mine is santos.lol .

Setup application startup file: passenger_wsgi.py

Application Entry point: application

This is what it looks like filled out:

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Connecting via FTP to Upload your App

Download FileZilla here, which is a File Transfer Protocol client. If you already have an FTP client. Please feel to proceed.

Once you have an FTP client such as FileZilla, you’ll want to connect your hosting provider.

Update your Host by entering ftp.YOURDOMAIN.com.

For your username, enter your namecheap cpanel username.

• Enter the password associated with your cpanel account.

Hit quick connect.

Once you’ve done that, look for your domain name and double click the folder. Now you’ll want to copy the files in lightning-address-app folder and drop them into the folder.

You may see this, if you do, please overwrite the file.

Wait for it to finish uploading everything and then once it’s done let’s install the requirements.

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Install Requirements & Restart the app

Copy the command from your Python App from cPanel.

In a new tab, navigate to the terminal app.

Paste in the command and hit enter.

Type pip3 install -r requirements.txt .

Once it is done, go back to your Setup a Python app , hit the edit button, and then restart your Python app.

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Try it out!

Try sending yourself a payment with the lightning address you just setup 🙂. Payments will fly directly into your associated Project Wallet. LFG 🚀.

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Conclusion

You now have your own custom Static Charge & Lightning Address powered by ZBD!