--- title: "Quickstart — connect an agent to Bitcoin" slug: quickstart surface: quickstart audience: humans twin-page: quickstart-for-agents status: v0-draft-2026-06-25 (pending review) last-updated: 2026-06-25 description: "Four pathways to plug an agent into Bitcoin, from a hosted service in minutes to your own full node." --- # Quickstart — connect an agent to Bitcoin > **In brief.** There's no single way to plug an agent into Bitcoin — there's a ladder, and which rung is right comes down to one question: *how much infrastructure are you willing to run?* This guide lays out four pathways — a custodial service (live in minutes), self-custody with no node, your own light-client node, and the full sovereign stack — and what each one trades away on custody, censorship-resistance, and effort. The rule of thumb is simple: pick the lightest pathway that meets your needs, and move down the ladder later if you need to. Every pathway ends in the same place — an agent that can pay, get paid, and reach the marketplace. --- ## Which pathway? Start at the top and stop at your first *yes*. Each step down the list trades a little more setup for a little more sovereignty. - **Don't need to hold your own keys?** → **A · Custodial service.** The fastest path: a hosted wallet or account holds the keys and runs the node for you. - **Want to hold your own funds, but not run a node?** → **B · Self-custody, no node.** A headless non-custodial wallet, or a connector that drives an external wallet without touching its keys. - **Willing to run a node, but not store the whole blockchain?** → **C · Light-client node.** Your own Lightning node on a light client — real channels, no 600-gigabyte download. - **Want to validate everything yourself?** → **D · Full sovereign stack.** Your own Bitcoin full node underneath your Lightning node. Trust nothing. - **Handling real money?** → keep your pathway and add the **remote-signer** hardening (below) on top of C or D. ## The four pathways at a glance | Pathway | What you run | Custody | What you trust | Time · effort | Sovereignty | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | **A · Custodial service** | nothing — an account / API | the operator holds the keys | the operator (can KYC, freeze, censor) | minutes · none | low | | **B · Self-custody, no node** | a wallet or a connector | you hold the keys | the wallet / connector infra; the mint, for ecash | minutes–hours · low | medium | | **C · Light-client node** | your own Lightning node on Neutrino | you hold the keys, your node | block headers (light-client level) + peer uptime | hours · medium | high | | **D · Full sovereign stack** | a Bitcoin full node + your Lightning node | you hold the keys, full validation | nothing — you verify it yourself | days (incl. sync) · high | maximum | | **＋ Remote signer** *(adds to C or D)* | a watch-only node + an isolated signer | keys live off the agent's host | the signer device + the limits you set | extra setup | hardens C/D | The further down you go, the less you have to trust anyone else — and the more you run yourself. Most agents should start at the lightest rung that meets their needs. --- ## A · Custodial service — fastest **What you run:** nothing. A hosted service holds the keys and operates the node; your agent calls an API or signs into an account. **The trade-off:** you're live in minutes with zero infrastructure, but the operator can KYC you, freeze funds, or be compelled to censor. Fine for small operational balances and getting moving; not where you park a treasury. **In our stack:** most of this lane lives in the [Market](/marketplace) section rather than the toolbox — see the [Exchange](/exchange) venues and the [Services](/services) directory for hosted, account-based options. On the bearer-token side, [Minibits/Ippon](/tools/minibits-ippon) spins up a custodial Cashu wallet with a single call (keep it small and disposable). **Start here if** you just need your agent paying for an API today and don't want to manage anything. ## B · Self-custody, no node **What you run:** a wallet you control, or a connector — but no node of your own. **The trade-off:** you hold your own keys without standing up infrastructure. You're still depending on the wallet or connector's backend (and, for ecash, on a mint), so it's not full self-sovereignty — but your funds aren't sitting with a custodian. **In our stack:** [Xverse Agent Wallet](/tools/xverse-agent-wallet) is a headless, non-custodial wallet whose keys stay encrypted on-device and which answers HTTP-402 payment requests itself. [Alby + Nostr Wallet Connect](/tools/alby-nwc) hands your agent a *scoped, budgeted, revocable* connection to a wallet hub without ever exposing the keys, and the [Model Context Protocol](/tools/mcp) carries those payment tools into agent frameworks. For bearer cash, [Cashu](/tools/cashu) gives instant, private transfers — with the honest caveat that the mint is a custodial trust point, so spread balances across mints (see [how to vet a mint](/tools/evaluating-ecash-mints)). Your agent pays over [L402](/tools/l402) and [LNURL](/tools/lnurl). **Start here if** you want real self-custody quickly and are comfortable trusting a wallet or connector for the plumbing. ## C · Light-client node **What you run:** your own Lightning node — `lnd` on a **Neutrino** light client instead of a full chain copy. You get real channels and route payments without downloading or storing the entire blockchain. *(Neutrino is an `lnd` capability; Core Lightning always wants a full `bitcoind`, so a CLN node lands in Pathway D.)* **The trade-off:** near-sovereign, with a fraction of the storage and sync time. The compromise is that a light client trusts block *headers* rather than fully validating every transaction itself — a real but well-understood reduction, not custodial trust. **In our stack:** [Lightning Agent Tools](/tools/lightning-agent-tools) (Lightning Labs' agent toolkit) runs natively in Neutrino mode; [LNbits](/tools/lnbits) gives you programmable wallets and accounts on top of your node; [Loop](/tools/loop) moves balance between on-chain and Lightning; [Taproot Assets](/tools/taproot-assets) adds issued-asset rails; and [Clink / Lightning.Pub](/tools/clink) is purpose-built to run an LND node in Neutrino mode on minimal hardware. Each of these confirms Neutrino support in its own docs — no full chain copy required. **Start here if** you want your own node and channels but don't want to run a full Bitcoin node yet. ## D · Full sovereign stack **What you run:** a [Bitcoin Core](/tools/bitcoin-core) full node underneath your Lightning node — the whole chain, validated by you. **The trade-off:** maximum sovereignty and censorship-resistance — you trust nothing and verify everything — at the cost of the most storage, sync time, and ongoing operations. **The key thing to know:** the toolkits are the *same* as Pathway C. Lightning Agent Tools, LNbits, Loop, Taproot Assets — they all run identically on a full node. **The pathway is set by your node backend (Neutrino vs. full Core), not by the tools.** That means you can start light on C and graduate to D later without changing your stack. **Want your agent to *sell*, not just buy?** Everything above gets it *paying*; this same sovereign backend can also *serve* a priced tool over a pubkey — a [CVM](/tools/contextvm) server with no inbound ports — instead of exposing an HTTP endpoint. See [The Stack](/stack) §4. **Start here if** censorship-resistance is the whole point — you're settling meaningful value and want to depend on no one. ## Protect the funds: the remote signer This isn't a fifth pathway — it's a hardening layer you add on top of C or D when an agent is handling real money. In a **split-node** setup, the agent operates a *watch-only* node that can initiate payments, while the private keys sit on a separate, isolated **remote signer**. You then issue **scoped credentials** (macaroons) that cap what the agent can do — pay-only, with a daily limit, say 5,000 sats. A compromised agent host can't drain the treasury, because it never held the keys. [Lightning Agent Tools](/tools/lightning-agent-tools) is built for exactly this (watch-only node plus a separate signer), and a scoped [NWC](/tools/alby-nwc) connection gives a lighter version of the same discipline for Pathway B. --- ## Reaching the marketplace Whichever pathway you pick, the destination is the same: an agent that holds value and can transact for itself. Once it can pay an invoice and answer one, it can discover and buy services in [the live marketplace](https://marketplace.bitcoineconomy.ai) — agent-readable, with probed liveness and a cross-provider price index. That's the whole point of standing any of this up. > [!info] Where to read next > **More in The Stack** — [The Stack](/stack) for how the layers actually fit together and what the payment primitives (L402, NWC, BOLT12) are doing under the hood · [the toolbox](/tools) to browse every tool by category, with its prerequisites · [Skills](/skills) for install-ready, MCP-native capabilities once your pathway is connected (discover-and-buy, lightning-pay, btc-check, nostr-post, verify-setup). > **In the other sections** — [The Case](/case) for why an agent should hold Bitcoin in the first place · [the Market](/marketplace) for where it spends.