Lightning Nwc

Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC)

NWC lets apps control a Lightning wallet remotely via Nostr relays. Defined in NIP-47 (Nostr Implementation Possibility 47).

Use case: a web app or another device wants to send / receive payments via your wallet without holding keys directly.

Architecture

[App (browser/mobile)]
     │ encrypted JSON payload
     ▼
  Nostr relay
     ▲
     │ encrypted response
[Wallet (mobile/extension/server)]

Both sides have Nostr keypairs. Communication encrypted via NIP-04 (end-to-end), relayed by untrusted public relays.

Connection URI

nostr+walletconnect://<wallet_pubkey>?relay=<wss://relay.example.com>&secret=<32-byte-hex>

User scans QR or pastes; app stores. Subsequent calls use this binding.

Methods

NIP-47 defines:

• pay_invoice(invoice) — pay BOLT11.
• pay_keysend(args) — keysend.
• make_invoice(args) — generate BOLT11.
• lookup_invoice(args).
• list_transactions(args).
• get_balance().
• get_info().
• multi_pay_invoice(invoices[]) — batch.
• sign_message(message).

Message format

NIP-47 events on Nostr:

• App publishes kind=23194 event with encrypted request to wallet's pubkey.
• Wallet processes, publishes kind=23195 with encrypted response.

Payload (decrypted JSON):

{
    "method": "pay_invoice",
    "params": { "invoice": "lnbc..." }
}

Response:

{
    "result_type": "pay_invoice",
    "result": { "preimage": "..." }
}

Providers

App integrations

• Damus, Amethyst (Nostr clients) — zaps via NWC.
• Bitcoin Connect — NWC as a fallback connector.
• Habla.news — Nostr-LN content payments.
• Yakihonne, Coracle — Nostr clients.
• Stacker.news — uses NWC for content payments.

Permissions

Method-level scoping. NWC URI can include allow/deny method lists:

nostr+walletconnect://...&methods=pay_invoice,make_invoice

Or wallet-side rate / amount limits.

Compared to WebLN / LNURL

Security considerations

• Wallet pubkey + secret in URI = full control of those methods on that wallet. Treat URI as sensitive (don't paste in untrusted apps).
• Per-app secret recommended (don't reuse across apps).
• Spending limits on wallet side (max-amount-per-tx, daily limit) defend against compromised app.

Common bugs

• Misconfigured relay (rate-limited, not subscribed) → no responses arrive.
• Using same NWC URI across multiple apps → can't revoke selectively.
• Latency: Nostr relays add 1-5 second round trip, slower than WebLN.

See also

• webln/SKILL.md
• lnurl/SKILL.md
• bolt12/SKILL.md