# Run a Lightning Node

Stand up an LND node on top of your Bitcoin node, the layer your Cashu mint settles ecash against. Follows the MiniBolt Lightning guide. Part of the New Mint walkthrough.

The conduit. Your Cashu mint issues ecash backed by Lightning, so this
node is what moves real sats in and out when users mint and melt. It anchors to
the Bitcoin node you set up in the previous step.

This guide uses [LND](https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lnd), Lightning Labs'
widely deployed node. Your mint connects to it over gRPC/REST with a macaroon and
TLS certificate.

## What this step covers

- **The node**, pointed at your Bitcoin Core node's RPC and notification endpoints.
- **A funded channel or two**: outbound liquidity to melt, inbound to mint.
- **gRPC connections** your mint can authenticate against in the next step.

## Follow MiniBolt's Lightning guide

We do not reproduce these steps. [MiniBolt's Lightning section](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning)
is the guide we recommend (see [the guides we build on](/new-mint/#the-guides-we-build-on)
for why). The first two pages are required for an Orchard mint; the apps after them
are optional. The tips below cover which pages matter and which you can skip.

<LinkCard
  title="Open MiniBolt: Lightning"
  href="https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning"
  target="_blank"
  rel="noopener noreferrer"
  description="Stand up LND and back up your channels, then come back here for the mint."
/>

## General guide tips

- **[3.1 Lightning client: LND](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/lightning-client)** (follow):
  Install and configure LND on top of your Bitcoin node. When this page offers a
  database backend, choose **PostgreSQL**, not the default bbolt: the Cashu mint in
  the next step reuses this same Postgres instance, so installing it now (via
  MiniBolt's [PostgreSQL guide](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/bonus-guides/system/postgresql))
  saves a step later.
- **[3.2 Channel backup for LND](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/channel-backup)** (follow):
  Set up static channel backups. Do not skip this. It is how you recover funds if
  the node is lost.
- **[3.3 Web app: ThunderHub](https://minibolt.minibolt.info/lightning/lightning/web-app)** (optional, recommended):
  A web application for LND. Orchard does not have channel management yet, so
  for now it helps to run ThunderHub (or a similar manager).