Skip to main content
Running an RGB Lightning Node (RLN) enables both direct, on-chain RGB operations and RGB-enabled Lightning payments through one node runtime and REST API. You do not need a separate on-chain node integration.
Utexo supports on-chain RGB on mainnet today. Lightning is beta and testnet-only for now. On testnet, you can test both paths; on mainnet, use RLN for on-chain RGB operations only.
Canonical source repository: UTEXO-Protocol/rgb-lightning-node

​
Supported execution paths

The node’s --network option selects its Bitcoin network. This technical option does not change the supported deployment matrix above.

​
Core runtime

RLN is an RGB-enabled Lightning daemon built on LDK. Its REST API combines:
  • On-chain RGB operations, including asset issuance, invoices, direct transfers, balances, transactions, UTXOs, and backups.
  • Lightning operations, including peer connections, RGB channels, invoices, payments, and routing.
  • Node lifecycle and security operations, including initialization, locking, authentication, backup, restore, and shutdown.
Applications use the relevant endpoints for the selected execution path. On mainnet, restrict the integration to the on-chain RGB endpoints. On testnet, the same integration can exercise both on-chain and Lightning flows.
From RLN v0.15.0-beta.3, a node configured for mainnet (--network mainnet or --network bitcoin) rejects Lightning API calls with HTTP 403 and the error name LightningUnsupportedOnMainnet (“RLN on mainnet currently supports only on-chain methods. Lightning APIs are not supported.”). The same guard applies to the SDK bindings.

​
Deployment models

RLN can be self-hosted or operated through Utexo Cloud. Utexo Cloud is a managed control plane for RLN instances, not a separate node implementation.

​
Architecture and data flow

The RGB Lightning Node API performs on-chain RGB and Lightning operations on a running node. The Cloud API manages hosted RLN lifecycle operations; it does not replace the runtime API.

​
Choosing an integration model

Most wallet and client applications should integrate through the Utexo SDK instead of operating node infrastructure directly. Choose self-hosted RLN when your team needs direct control over runtime configuration, network exposure, authentication, storage, upgrades, and recovery. Choose Utexo Cloud when you want Utexo to provide node provisioning and lifecycle management while your application integrates with the RLN runtime and Cloud APIs. In either model, the RLN integration covers both on-chain and Lightning functionality. Do not build a second integration for on-chain RGB.

​
Signing and trust boundaries

  • RLN maintains security-sensitive wallet and Lightning state and performs signing operations. RLN can also run in external-signer mode, where a VLS-backed signer holds the keys and the node holds none; see Remote Signer.
  • Self-hosted operators are responsible for API authentication, TLS or private networking, data protection, backups, dependency security, and incident recovery.
  • Utexo Cloud adds a separate control-plane trust boundary. Cloud API tokens and RLN runtime credentials serve different purposes and must be managed independently.

​
External dependencies

A self-hosted RLN deployment requires:
  • A Bitcoin chain backend: bitcoind or Esplora
  • An Electrum or Esplora indexer for RGB wallet operations
  • An RGB proxy or transport endpoint for consignment exchange
  • Persistent storage for wallet and channel state
  • Network access to Lightning peers when testing Lightning functionality
Utexo Cloud may manage some of these infrastructure concerns, but it does not change the underlying node protocol model or the supported mainnet/testnet split.

​
Next steps