Watchtower
Why you need it
Watchtowers are an important component of the Lightning Network, which is a second-layer Bitcoin payment channel network. Their main purpose is to protect users from potential fraud or attacks from their channel partners. In practice, watchtowers are services that constantly monitor users' payment channels. If a node on the network attempts to send a fraudulent transaction through a channel, the watchtower intervenes immediately, sending an emergency closure transaction to safeguard the funds of the involved users. Watchtowers are particularly useful for users who cannot constantly monitor their payment channels, such as if they are offline for an extended period of time. In this case, the watchtower continues to monitor the channel for them and intervenes in case of any issues. It's worth noting that the use of watchtowers is optional. Users can choose not to use them and monitor their payment channels independently. However, for anyone looking to have an extra layer of security on their Lightning Network payment channels, watchtowers are a recommended choice.
Configure (activate the watch)
To enable your LN daemon to work with watchtower edit your lnd.conf
file and:
watchtower.active = 1
Connect
If you need a watchtower on clear net:
03b06847b0d56c466555f2c6922a08249f60647fce2d39a36ab2dd0309ac5b1b0d
wt2.frznode.com:9911
lncli wtclient add 03b06847b0d56c466555f2c[email protected]:9911
If you need a watchtower on the onion network:
03b06847b0d56c466555f2c6922a08249f60647fce2d39a36ab2dd0309ac5b1b0d
ulth7cn7un7wonehii562ar6ov3hilaf5nchvb2ydc5tnsskaluuqyyd.onion:9911
lncli wtclient add 03b06847b0d56c466555f2c6922a08249f60647fce2d39a36ab2dd0309ac5b1b0d@ulth7cn7un7wonehii562ar6ov3hilaf5nchvb2ydc5tnsskaluuqyyd.onion:9911
Extra
You can find a more detailed guide on how to setup a watchtower here.
FAQ
lncli wtclient towers
shows: "active_session_candidate": true,