--- name: "Voltage Payments" slug: voltage-payments tool-type: service category: payments two-sided: "consume + offer" maintainer: "Voltage (Voltage Credit, LLC)" docs: https://docs.voltageapi.com site: https://voltage.cloud payment: "usage-based, sales-quoted (no public rate card); credit-backed accounts settle on a monthly billing cycle" status: "published" --- # Voltage Payments > A REST API for Lightning payments with the nodes, channels, and liquidity abstracted away — send and receive bitcoin over Lightning, backed either by Voltage's own credit line or by your own node. ## What it is Voltage Payments is a **"Stripe for Lightning"**: a REST API (`https://voltageapi.com/v1`) that lets a business create Lightning wallets, **send and receive bitcoin over Lightning** (BOLT11), manage teams and permissions, reconcile accounts, and receive webhooks — with **the nodes, channels, and liquidity mostly abstracted away**. That abstraction is the whole point: you make an API call, and Voltage handles the routing and inbound/outbound liquidity that normally make running a Lightning node hard. It ships in two shapes. **Node-backed** points the API at **your own Lightning node** — you keep complete control of your infrastructure and funds. **Credit-backed** lets Voltage run the infrastructure and gives you a **business line of credit** (no pre-funding, monthly settlement), secured by collateral — BTC or USD held in a multi-sig vault, or bank-account verification. The transacting asset today is **bitcoin**. Voltage's marketing pairs "BTC & USD," but the developer docs are explicit that **bitcoin is currently the only supported asset**, with **USDT still "coming soon."** **USD lines of credit have shipped** — the docs carry dedicated Sending and Receiving (USD Line of Credit) guides in which a USD wallet converts USD to BTC at payment time, and the API exposes `/lines_of_credit/*` and `/quotes`. What remains "coming soon" is **USD *invoice* payments** — settling Voltage's own billing invoice by ACH, which is a different thing. Credit-backed accounts denominate and settle their activity in USD against the BTC rail, but the value that actually moves is Bitcoin over Lightning. ## When to use it - A business or agent needs to **send and receive bitcoin over Lightning behind one API** without operating its own node and liquidity. - You want to point the same API at **your own node** (self-custodial) rather than a hosted one. - You want **machine-tempo Lightning settlement** with usage-based billing rather than running the rail yourself. ## Dependencies & payment A **business account** — and this is a regulated financial onboarding, not a self-serve signup. Voltage Payments is **only available to businesses in approved U.S. states**; the mainnet application collects org structure and TIN plus **beneficial-owner details for anyone holding 25%+** (name, DOB, address, SSN/TIN), and credit-backed accounts must **post collateral** (BTC/USD in a multi-sig vault) or verify a bank account. Pricing is **not a published rate card** — "shaped around your volume, your rails, and how you deploy," set with sales at approval; credit-backed accounts get an approved credit amount and a billing-cycle frequency. **Mainnet applications are currently closed**; you can read the docs and build against **staging** today, but live access is gated. ## Quick start The API is public and documented at `docs.voltageapi.com` (interactive spec at `voltageapi.com/v1/docs`). Auth is a per-environment **API key** sent as an `x-api-key` header, generated from the dashboard's Team → API Keys page. One integration quirk worth knowing: creating a payment returns **HTTP 202 (accepted)**, and you then **GET the payment** to retrieve the actual invoice. There is **no official SDK and no MCP server** — integration is hand-rolled HTTP against the REST endpoints. Build against **staging** first; **mainnet onboarding is closed** at time of writing, so an agent cannot self-provision live credentials. ## Gotchas - **Bitcoin is still the only transacting asset, despite "BTC & USD" marketing.** USDT remains roadmap ("soon"); **USD lines of credit are live**, but a USD wallet converts to BTC at payment time — so USD is a denomination and a credit line, never the thing that settles. Lead with the docs, not the homepage. - **Credit-backed is a secured loan, not just a payments account.** Collateral sits in a multi-sig vault; it's a lending relationship with Voltage. Node-backed is the self-custodial path — you keep the funds. - **Business-only, U.S.-states-only, heavy KYB.** Beneficial-ownership disclosure and SSN/TIN are required. No individual, non-US, or anonymous access. - **Mainnet onboarding is closed.** Staging is open; live money movement is gated and sales-approved. - **No SDK, no MCP.** Raw REST only — an agent can drive the API once credentialed, but there's no published agent-ready path and no self-serve onboarding.