New Umbrel Connector!

This week Rene added a long-planned connector to Bitcoin Connect - the Umbrel connector.

Nostr Wallet Connect (NWC, NIP-47) is a simple open protocol for communicating with a wallet over Nostr, no matter what type of wallet it is - whether it is self-custodial or not. From the beginning, Alby's Nostr Wallet Connect application has supported both Alby's OAuth Wallet API as well as LND, and can support many other wallets and nodes in the future - basically moving the power of the Alby extension closer to the funding source, so it can be easily connected from Lightning-powered apps, without any need for knowledge of how to connect to multiple nodes and wallets like the Alby extension does. All that's needed is the ability to communicate with a relay over Nostr.

With the Umbrel connector, self-sovereign users can easily connect to Nostr and Lightning apps that supports NWC by running their own NWC instance on their Umbrel, and having full control over the app's ability to access their node through NWC budgets and permissions. This is a big step forward in making it easier to run a self-custodial without any trade-offs.

Getting the NWC app running on Umbrel is super simple.

Rene, with a great eye for details also made some minor UI and copy improvements which just make Bitcoin Connect feel so smooth to use.

I also came up with a plan of larger features that could be worked on in the upcoming weeks:
- Mobile wallet connectors: We could do something similar to what Bitrefill does - allowing direct linking to specific wallets to make payments. There will be limitations here: only some WebLN methods will be possible (like sendPayment), and realtime payments will not be possible because app switching is required. But it will be a lot more intuitive to users. ("Hey, I already have a wallet! why can't I use it?")
- Add a component to simplify making payments: Almost every lightning-powered site re-invents the wheel for handling lightning payments, and the UX is hard to get right. (QR payments, WebLN support, copy to clipboard, open in wallet, loading spinners, etc.). Why couldn't we just expose a simple component that handles everything for websites?

What do you think? What would you like to see in bitcoinConnect? Let us know!

Roland, Rene and Jakub