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Advancements in Bitcoin and Lightning Wallets
Wallet and node software form the core of Bitcoin's free and open financial ecosystem. They define how people hold, send, and verify their bitcoin without depending on intermediaries. As the network grows, these tools continue to evolve towards stronger privacy, smoother interoperability, and better usability.
Over the past year, a new wave of development has advanced both on-chain and Lightning self-custody. Developers have improved the speed and reliability of mobile and desktop wallets, added advanced features once reserved for experts, and made complex Bitcoin functions more intuitive. This progress shows that ease of use and technical depth can advance together without compromising security or control.
With support from OpenSats, the six projects featured in this impact report represent advances in Bitcoin and Lightning wallet development.
The projects highlighted in this impact report are:
The above list is not exhaustive. OpenSats has supported many more wallet projects, which we plan to highlight in future impact reports. We are also providing funding to several ecash wallets.
These projects demonstrate the ongoing refinement of self-custody across the Bitcoin ecosystem. From full-node operators to mobile-first users, developers are closing the gap between technical sophistication and everyday reliability. The result is a more capable and accessible network built on verifiable code and open collaboration.
Let's take a closer look at how each of these projects is making an impact.
Bitcoin Safe
Bitcoin Safe is a savings wallet built for secure, private, long-term self-custody. It helps users manage their bitcoin holdings through a simple interface while maintaining control of funds.
Funding from OpenSats enabled ongoing improvements in reliability and transparency. The wallet now connects directly to Bitcoin's network for live transaction notifications, removing the need for centralized servers. Users can see on-chain confirmations in real time while preserving privacy.
Support for hardware wallets like Blockstream Jade Plus expanded compatibility and security. The wallet also warns about look-alike address scams to help users avoid common attack patterns.
Behind the interface, Bitcoin Safe is prepared for full adoption of Compact Block Filters (BIP-157/158). Wallets download compact filters from peers and match them locally, removing address or xpub lookups against third-party servers. This improves privacy while remaining lightweight and reduces reliance on centralized indexers. Project developers collaborated with the BDK community to refine handling of unconfirmed transactions, address lookahead, and encrypted storage, helping improve BDK-based wallets overall.
Compact Block Filters in wallets, like Bitcoin Safe, are the best way to have fast UX while removing centralization points, such as electrum servers.
—Andreas Griffin
Translation support helps make the wallet accessible to users in multiple languages for broader usability, while the use of nostr enables private data synchronization, label sharing, and multi-signature coordination across devices through its "Sync & Chat" tool. This system reduces trust in centralized infrastructure while allowing smooth collaboration between co-signers.
Bitcoin Safe brings modern Bitcoin libraries and decentralized communication tools together in one application built for long-term savings, showing how open-source development makes self-custody practical.
Blixt Wallet
Blixt Wallet is a non-custodial Bitcoin Lightning wallet for Android and iOS, focused on usability and control. Built with LND and Neutrino, it lets users run a full Lightning node directly on their device without relying on centralized services.
With a grant from OpenSats, Blixt rebuilt its core around react-native-turbo-lnd, a C++ module that runs the Lightning Network Daemon (LND) directly inside the app, allowing faster Lightning payments without relying on background software. A new feature called Speedloader helps the app start quickly and stay in sync even on slower connections. This model provides a reference for other projects with similar goals.
The project also released tools for developers building Lightning apps. For example, react-native-turbo-sqlite stores wallet data securely on a phone, and react-native-nitro-tor enables Tor-based privacy. Work continues on making Blixt compatible with Windows devices using React Native, allowing the same experience across operating systems.
Blixt improved reliability through updates to Neutrino, the lightweight Bitcoin client used for transaction verification. The wallet now connects to multiple peers in different regions, keeping connections steady and reducing delays during synchronization. These refinements address a long-standing challenge in mobile self-custody.
The project also introduced Lightning Box, a trust-minimized version of the Lightning Address protocol. It lets users receive payments to human-readable addresses, such as user@domain, while keeping custody local. A lightweight HTTP relay forwards payment requests to the recipient's wallet and returns the invoice for payment.
Having a trust-minimized Lightning Address linked to a self-custodial wallet is a valuable option in a custodial Lightning world.
—Hampus Sjöberg
Released on Android in version 0.6.9-420 and documented as an open protocol draft, Lightning Box is available for other wallets to adopt.
These improvements make Blixt a dependable, self-custodial wallet and a model for secure Lightning applications. Ongoing progress on push-to-wake handling, platform support, and Lightning Service Provider compatibility continues this trajectory.
Blitz Wallet
Blitz Wallet is a self-custodial Bitcoin ecosystem focused on making payments simple. Its main product, the Blitz Mobile App, previously unified Lightning, Liquid, and ecash balances into one platform and has now transitioned to the Spark protocol. The goal remains to make Bitcoin payments accessible while ensuring users maintain full control of their funds.
Over the past year, Blitz refined its approach to onboarding new Bitcoin users through a “custodial ladder” model—starting with easy, guided defaults and progressing toward full self-custody. Built with the Breez SDK, Blockstream Greenlight, and the Blockstream Green Development Kit, Blitz combined these open-source tools to provide a strong foundation while using Boltz for automatic channel rebalancing. However, maintaining multiple networks introduced complexity and fragmented balances.
With OpenSats' support, Blitz streamlined its design into a simpler, Spark-based wallet. The latest version enables receiving payments while offline, maintaining inbound capacity, and exiting directly to on-chain bitcoin. A new Progressive Web App version works on any browser without relying on the app store.
Blitz has integrated a built-in store, contact-based payments, and point-of-sale tools. Through integrations with services like The Bitcoin Company, PPQ AI, LN VPN, and SMS4Sats, users can buy gift cards, access online services, and send messages using sats.
The transition to Spark replaced earlier multi-network integrations, unifying what were once separate systems for Lightning, Liquid, and swaps into a simpler, more efficient architecture.
Simplicity of use is the difference between Bitcoin as a cypherpunk technology and Bitcoin as a monetary revolution.
—Blake Kaufman
As the first live reference implementation of Spark, Blitz offers insight for developers exploring the protocol. Each iteration of Blitz development continues to reduce mental effort while preserving sovereignty, showing that convenience and self-custody can progress together. Through its public codebases and coordination with upstream developers, Blitz contributes to the Bitcoin development stack, demonstrating how simplicity and sovereignty can align for a great user experience.
Clams
Clams is a web-based interface for managing Core Lightning (CLN) nodes. It connects node operations with self-custodial tools across desktop and mobile. Operators can send and receive payments, manage channels, and monitor node activity through encrypted connections and user-defined permissions without relying on third parties.
The project supports Lightning payment methods like instant keysend transfers, standard Lightning invoices (BOLT11), reusable invoices (BOLT12), and LNURL. As a progressive web app, it offers a consistent browser experience with tools for channel management, payments, plugin control, and UTXO tracking.
Supported by OpenSats, Clams released Remote v2, rebuilding the interface around a local database for faster performance and scalability. Nodes processing over 100,000 payments now benefit from better stability. The update added multi-CLN connections, passphrase-encrypted sessions, and ready-to-install desktop versions. Version 2.1 introduced multilingual support, starting with Spanish.
Clams simplified self-hosting through a full integration with Start9's StartOS, allowing one-click installation and updates. Features like the plugins dashboard have simplified a complex setup, making it manageable for small businesses and educators locally.
One major update was the unified dashboard for two CLN plugins: CLBOSS, which automates liquidity management, and BOLT12 Prisms, which enables payment splitting across recipients.
Core Lightning's plugin ecosystem contains powerful tools like CLBOSS for automated liquidity management and BOLT12 Prisms for payment splitting, but interacting with these plugins requires command-line knowledge. Remote solves this by providing the first comprehensive plugin dashboard. We also decided to make Remote fully self-hostable. Now users can run their complete Lightning stack on Start9—Bitcoin node, CLN, and plugin interfaces—entirely on their own hardware with intuitive access to advanced features.
—John Gribbin
Clams implemented BIP-353, which enables DNS-based Lightning addresses so users can send payments to email-like addresses. Users can open or close channels from the interface, adjust invoice visibility, receive sync warnings, and connect through Tor via Alby proxy. A new "event mode" lets educators and organizers deploy temporary demo nodes safely.
To support developers, Clams released tools like the BOLT12 Decoder and detailed documentation on BOLT12 and BIP-353. Its self-hosted design keeps node operation verifiable and user-controlled, improving both privacy and usability within the Lightning ecosystem.
Cove
Cove is a single-signature mobile wallet for on-chain Bitcoin use. Unlike many wallets that focus on Lightning or multisignature setups, Cove offers a simple, self-custodial option compatible with hardware signing devices.
OpenSats' support helped developer Praveen Perera advance Cove from prototype to production, releasing it as a non-custodial, Bitcoin-only wallet on the iOS App Store. Written in Rust and integrated through Swift and Kotlin bindings built on the Bitcoin Development Kit (BDK), the app supports TAPSIGNER and SATSCARD hardware cards that let users initialize, change PINs, create backups, and sign transactions directly through NFC.
Beyond Cove itself, Perera contributed upstream improvements to the Rust ecosystem that make these features possible, including work on BIP-329, rust-cktap, and uniffi, which powers Rust bindings used by projects like Cove and BDK. These upstream efforts directly strengthen Cove’s functionality and the broader Bitcoin app ecosystem.
The wallet supports BIP-329 labels, which let users name and organize transactions for easier tracking. It includes detailed coin control, allowing users to choose which coins to spend or save for better privacy and fee management. Custom fee settings and local currency options provide clear spending control. A decoy PIN mode unlocks a limited version of the wallet under duress, adding security through plausible deniability.
Cove isn't doing any one new thing—it's bringing all the right pieces together. Coin control on a phone is hard to do well, and I'm proud of how usable it turned out.
—Praveen Perera
Cove also improved compatibility through Swift and Android bindings for the BBQr animated-QR protocol. This system breaks large transaction files into scannable QR sequences, allowing air-gapped hardware wallets to sign transactions offline while keeping private keys isolated. Developers from other projects, including Fully Noded, have adopted this method to standardize offline signing.
Through OpenSats' support, designer Adrian Lischer refined Cove's interface to make advanced features more approachable. Navigation and transaction flows have been simplified, and settings now enable switching between basic and advanced modes.
By combining open-source libraries, hardware integration, and an intuitive user experience, the project helps advance open Bitcoin development and keeps privacy and usability in balance. Cove represents a practical evolution in mobile wallet design, helping new users start safely, while giving experienced users greater control, and reinforcing open standards that underpin the Bitcoin network.
Satsigner
Satsigner is a Bitcoin wallet that gives users full visibility and control over their keys, transactions, and signing process. It is designed for users who want to understand how Bitcoin operates while balancing security with usability.
Through funding from OpenSats, the project introduced descriptor-native multisignature creation, allowing users to set up shared wallets with standardized, readable instructions instead of more complex configuration files. Clear setup flows for watch-only and multisig wallets make coordination easier across devices.
Satsigner improved synchronization reliability by integrating an Electrum backend with progressive loading and detailed error handling. QR and NFC transfer handling now supports multi-part data movement between devices, reducing errors when signing transactions offline. These changes make it easier to monitor or update cold storage securely from a mobile phone.
A major update added the transaction graph explorer, which visualizes inputs and outputs in a Sankey style flow diagram. This helps users see where coins come from and where they go, improving understanding of spending patterns and privacy posture.
Behind the scenes, Satsigner strengthened validation for descriptor imports and exports. The wallet now checks configuration files more carefully for accuracy and compatibility with other software such as Sparrow and Specter. Together, these refinements reduce errors during account setup and ensure data consistency across wallets.
By prioritizing signer-first workflows and making multisignature use practical on mobile devices, Satsigner reinforces the principles of open verification and personal control that define Bitcoin self-custody.
Each of these projects advances the usability of bitcoin without compromising self-custody. By improving Lightning reliability, refining wallet interfaces, and strengthening privacy, they make it easier for users to hold and transact securely on their own terms.
OpenSats supports this work to ensure that critical infrastructure remains open, verifiable, and decentralized. The developers behind these tools strengthen Bitcoin's foundation by turning technical progress into practical freedom, empowering anyone, anywhere, to use bitcoin with confidence and autonomy.
Together, these efforts demonstrate the steady evolution of Bitcoin as both technology and public good. Self-custody is becoming simpler, more intuitive, and more resilient. Each release brings Bitcoin closer to a future where financial independence is not an exception, but the norm.
If you are a developer working on free and open-source software that helps Bitcoin flourish, we encourage you to apply for funding.