Today we are excited to announce Specter as the latest addition to the Start9 Service Marketplace! You can view the source code here.

About

Specter is a user-friendly web GUI for Bitcoin Core with a focus on multisignature setup with hardware wallets and airgapped devices.

At the moment Specter works with all major hardware wallets including:

• Trezor
• Ledger
• KeepKey
• BitBox02
• ColdCard (optionally airgapped, using an SD card)
• Electrum (optionally airgapped, if running Electrum on an airgapped computer/ phone)
• Specter DIY (optionally airgapped, using QR codes)
• Cobo (airgapped, using QR codes)

Specter also supports using Bitcoin Core as a hot wallet, by importing or generating a random BIP39 mnemonic, but this feature is experimental and not generally recommended.

Enjoy!

If you have purchased an Embassy and are looking to migrate from an Umbrel this can be done within the Embassy UI with two clicks provided your Umbrel and Embassy are on the same local area network. That is far simpler but requires two sets of hardware. If you just want to turn your Umbrel into an Embassy, follow this guide.

The only additional equipment you may need is one of these speakers. You can build an Embassy without one, but that can make troubleshooting more difficult if something goes wrong. If you don’t have one it’s fine to proceed.

If you get stuck during this guide — please reach out to us in our Telegram channel.

Please note: This guide is for Umbrel v0.4.x. We made this as we heard people were losing their lightning channels upgrading from Umbrel 0.4.x to Umbrel v0.5.

This guide also requires EmbassyOS v0.3.1 — due for release any day. It can be done with the current version, the process is just a little different. Don’t attempt this without being aware of that — and if you decide to anyway, make sure to reach out to us.

Start by making a backup of your Umbrel — particularly your lightning channels, just in case anything goes wrong.

Next, let’s get things as ready as possible Embassy-wise so that you can minimize downtime for your lightning node.

Get EmbassyOS by either building it or purchasing it then downloading it. If you have a second SD card — flash EmbassyOS onto it as this will save some time on the other end. (You can simply follow this part of the DIY guide.)

Now we need to make a directory on our local machine (the interim device) to temporarily store the data from our Umbrel. How much room you need for LND depends on how many channels you had and how much activity they have had. My hardly used node was about 500mb. It can be multiple gigabytes. If you want to migrate bitcoind’s data as well that will be around ~500gb. This isn’t necessary but it can save you redoing the IBD on your Embassy.

We recommend migrating the bitcoin data too. Assuming you have gigabit ethernet and a fast SSD (>=128MB/s read/write), the data will take around an hour from your Umbrel to your laptop/desktop and then another hour from your laptop/desktop to your Embassy. With 100Mb/s (non-gigabit ethernet) it will take 12 hours both ways! (Still faster than redoing initial block download.)

If you would like to use an external drive instead of your laptop/desktop’s internal drive, please connect it to your laptop/desktop and create the directories there instead by modifying the commands in this guide as appropriate.

If you’re on Linux/Mac open up terminal and make the directory where you would like your Umbrel’s data to be temporarily stored:

mkdir -p ~/umbreldata/lnd

#if you would like to store this data on an external drive, make sure to create these directories there instead.

#if you'd like to copy over the bitcoin data too:

mkdir -p ~/umbreldata/bitcoin

On Windows, navigate to your home directory (or wherever you’d like to store this data), right click and create the folders lnd and bitcoin.

Now let’s grab the data from your Umbrel.

You will need SSH installed. On Mac/Linux it is by default. To set up ssh on Windows, please follow this guide — note: this was written by community member BrewsBitcoin.

Now open up a terminal (Mac/Linux) or PuTTY (Windows).

Run the following command to stop your bitcoin and lightning nodes:

ssh umbrel@umbrel.local

#you will be asked for your Umbrel's dashboard password
#then run:

sudo ./umbrel/scripts/stop

Note: You must make sure you have run this stop script and if your bitcoin or lightning nodes are not stopped before beginning the transfer of data, corruption will definitely occur.

You will see Umbrel stopping the containers:

Now exit the ssh session by typing exit.

Now we can grab the data:

#use SCP to securely copy the data from your Umbrel:
scp -r umbrel@umbrel.local:~/umbrel/lnd/ ~/umbreldata/lnd

#remember to modify ~/umbreldata to wherever you want the data stored in the interim

#If you are struggling with this in Windows - please reach out in Telegram.

If you wish to copy over the bitcoin blockchain too (this will take multiple hours — make sure you have a gigabit ethernet connection if you want to do this):

scp -r umbrel@umbrel.local:~/umbrel/bitcoin/ ~/umbreldata/bitcoin

With the data pulled from your Umbrel, check that the data ended up where it’s supposed to.

#take a look at the data on your local machine:

du -h ~/umbreldata/lnd/lnd
#for me it's 439M - it can be gigabytes in size.

#and if you grabbed bitcoin:
du -h ~/umbreldata/bitcoin/lnd

#On Windows, simply navigate to the folders you created and right click +  properties to see their sizes.

Now let’s change the name of the directories to what they’ll need to be on your Embassy:

mv umbreldata/lnd/lnd umbreldata/lnd/main/
mv umbreldata/bitcoin/bitcoin umbreldata/bitcoin/main

You can now turn off your Umbrel and follow the remainder of the DIY guide here and power up your Embassy. You can follow the setup guide here.

Once built and powered on, set up SSH access to your Embassy like this.

ssh in to your Embassy:

ssh start9@xxx.local
#replace "xxx" with your Embassy's LAN address - you are given this at the end of the setup process.

Now we need to copy over the ssh key to root:

sudo -i
mkdir /root/.ssh
cp /home/start9/.ssh/authorized_keys /root/.ssh/

Now we can ssh in as root — this is needed because we need to be able to copy the files directly to the Embassy’s SSD.

Create the necessary directories.

For LND:

sudo mkdir -p /embassy-data/package-data/volumes/lnd/data/

For Bitcoin (if you pulled the bitcoin data from your Umbrel too):

sudo mkdir -p /embassy-data/package-data/volumes/bitcoind/data/

Now you can scp the data to your Embassy from your laptop/computer:

#exit sudo:
exit
#then exit the ssh session:
exit

#then scp the data (note the `root` rather than `start9`):
scp -r ~/umbreldata/lnd/main root@xxx.local:/embassy-data/package-data/volumes/lnd/data

#if you're doing bitcoin too:
scp -r ~/umbreldata/bitcoin/main root@xxx.local:/embassy-data/package-data/volumes/bitcoind/data

Then we’ll need the password for lncli unlock — on Umbrel this is moneyprintergobrrr by default, in which case:

echo -n 'moneyprintergobrrr' > /embassy-data/package-data/volumes/lnd/data/main/pwd.dat

If your LND unlock password was different, please change the above command as appropriate. On older versions of Umbrel (over a year old) this password was your dashboard password — NOT “moneyprintergobrrr”.

With all the data copied across, you are now good to install Bitcoin Core from the marketplace. When setting config ensure that “Transaction Index” is turned on before saving as this was done by your Umbrel anyway — might as well use that data.

Save the config *but before hitting start* ssh back in to your Embassy and check for the existence of this file: requires.reindex:

ssh root@xxx.local
cd /embassy-data/package-data/volumes/bitcoind/data/main
ls

The above will list the contents of your Embassy’s bitcoin directory. If you see the file requires.reindex remove it by typing:

rm requires.reindex

This is critical to do. If this file exists, bitcoin will reindex which can take a very long time and we want to minimize downtime as much as possible.

If this file exists and you started bitcoin already, you must redo the entire transfer or wait for reindexing to finish.

Once ready, start Bitcoin Core and let it catch up to the latest block. Once that’s done, install LND and accept the default config. Now you can start up LND.

If you did not copy across the bitcoin data you will need to start LND with Neutrino turned on. This is only possible in Embassy v0.3.1 and with the soon to be released LND — this is not currently available unless you have built EmbassyOS from source yourself but will be publicly available any day now. This guide will be updated once it is possible. Please hold off on this final part if you bought EmbassyOS and thus don’t have 0.3.1. Contact us if you are stuck here.

If you copied over bitcoin and all has gone smoothly, you can now install something like Ride The Lightning to check on your channels. They should be exactly as you left them on the Umbrel and you have successfully transformed your Umbrel into an Embassy.

Today we are excited to announce Lightning Jet (or just “Jet”) as the latest addition to the Start9 Service Marketplace! You can view the source code here.

About

Jet is a fully automated rebalancer for LND Lightning nodes. It helps get an insight into peers’ classification based on routing history, missed routing opportunities, and stuck HTLCs.

The mission of Jet is to help independent node operators compete in the ever-changing landscape of the Lighting Network, especially as big institutional players enter the space.

Jet is designed for Lightning power users and routing node operators and is not officially supported by the Start9 team. Please use with caution.

Features

For a complete list of capabilities and commands possible with Jet, see here.

Today we are excited to announce Balance of Satoshi (BoS) as the latest addition to the Start9 Service Marketplace! You can view the source code here.

About

BoS is a Command line tool for working with LND balances. It is designed for Lightning power users and routing node operators and is not officially supported by the Start9 team. Please use with caution.

Features

For a complete list of capabilities and commands possible with BoS, see here.

Today we are excited to announce LNDg as the latest addition to the Start9 Service Marketplace! You can view the source code here.

About

LNDg is a lite GUI web interface to analyze LND data and manage your node with automation.

Features

LNDg offers a variety of tools, including:

• Channel performance metrics.
• Suggests and automates fee rates. LNDg will make suggestions on an adjustment to the current set outbound fee rate for each channel. This uses historical payment and forwarding data over the last 7 days to drive suggestions
• Suggest new peers. LNDg will make suggestions for new peers to open channels to based on your node’s successful routing history.
• Suggest AR (Auto-Rebalance) actions. LNDg will make suggestions for actions to take around Auto-Rebalancing.
• AR autopilot setting. LNDg will automatically act upon the suggestions it makes on the Suggests AR Actions page.
• HTLC failure stream. LNDg will listen for failure events in your htlc stream and record them to the dashboard when they occur.
• Peer Reconnection. LNDg will automatically try to resolve any channels that are seen as inactive, no more than every 3 minutes per peer.
• API Backend. The following data can be accessed at the /api endpoint:
  payments paymenthops invoices forwards onchain peers channels rebalancer settings pendinghtlcs failedhtlcs

Today we are excited to announce Lightning Terminal (LiT) as the latest addition to the Start9 Service Marketplace! You can view the source code here.

About

Lightning Terminal (LiT) is a browser-based interface for managing channel liquidity. With it, you can:

• Visualize your channels and balances
• Use Loop to perform submarine swaps. “Loop Out” to convert outbound capacity into inbound capacity + on-chain funds. Or “Loop In” to convert on-chain funds + inbound capacity into outbound capacity
• Use Pool to earn sats by opening channels to those needing inbound liquidity
• Use Faraday to view details about your LND node. This is a command line utility and should only be used by advanced users.

Today we are excited to announce electrs as the latest addition to the Start9 Service Marketplace! You can view the source code here.

About

Electrs indexes the entire Bitcoin blockchain, and the resulting index enables fast queries, allowing you to keep real-time track of balances and transaction history using a variety of client wallets. Since electrs is self-hosted on your Embassy, your wallet does not need to communicate with public Electrum servers, thus preserving the privacy of your addresses and balances.

Mempool Address/TX Lookups

It is now possible to view specific addresses and transactions in Mempool. To enable this, simply go into your Mempool config and turn on “Enable Electrs Address Lookups”. EmbassyOS will then automatically require a fully-synced electrs as a dependency of Mempool.

New Bitcoin Wallets

Electrs unlocks a variety of new desktop and mobile wallets. Check here for the most up-to-date list and detailed connection instructions for each.

Today we are excited to announce Mempool as the latest addition to the Start9 Service Marketplace! You can view the source code here.

About

The most beautiful way to experience the Bitcoin network! Not much else to say.

Mempool is a fully featured visualizer, explorer, and API service for the Bitcoin mempool, with a focus on the emerging transaction fee market to help our transition into a multi-layer ecosystem.

Disclaimer

Because electrs has not yet been packaged for EmbassyOS, Mempool on Embassy lacks the ability to look up activity for specific addresses. This will become available as soon as when electrs becomes available. Everything else will work as expected.

Today we are excited to announce Syncthing (pronounced “sync thing”) as the latest addition to the Start9 Service Marketplace! You can view the source code here.

About

Syncthing is a continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes.

On Embassy, it means no more needing to manually upload and download files to File Browser. Instead, Syncthing integrates seamlessly with File Browser to turn your Embassy into a private cloud backup solution that automatically synchronizes data across all your devices, including multiple Embassies!

Syncthing is very powerful and complex with many configuration options. Please be careful!

• Check out Start9's instructions.
• Check out the official Syncthing docs.
• Get help in the Syncthing Forum.
• Join the unofficial Syncthing Telegram chat.

Sovereign Computing

Two years ago, Start9 released EmbassyOS 0.1.0 — the first ever, general purpose, mass market operating system for a personal server. It enabled anyone, regardless of technical expertise, to self-host their own software services on their own personal server inside their own home, thereby eliminating trusted third parties from select areas of their digital lives.

In September of 2020, we released EmbassyOS 0.2.0, which touted a generalized dependency management system and unparalleled service uptime and reliability, establishing Start9 not only as the pioneer of the self-hosting revolution, but as its unequivocal leader. 0.2.x was, until today, the most advanced, secure, and reliable personal server OS in the world.

Now, we are proud to announce the release of EmbassyOS 0.3.0! From base architecture, to UI design, and everything in between — 0.3.0 improves significantly upon its predecessor and marks a milestone in the history of personal computing, an inflection point when the tide of decentralization will begin to swell.

We are also excited to show off a brand new website, including an improved User Manual and all new Developer Documentation!

Below is a detailed enumeration of the changes and improvements from 0.2.x to 0.3.0.

Highlights

SSD Support

Operating system and service data are now stored on an SSD instead of the microSD, massively improving storage capacity, as well as overall performance and reliability. It is now possible to run an archival Bitcoin node, and Initial Block Download (syncing from the genesis block) has been reduced from ~11 days down to ~2–3 days.

Unified Backend Codebase

EmbassyOS 0.2.x was a composition of three components: Lifeline, Agent, and Appmgr. Lifeline was written in Rust and was responsible for system initialization and disaster recovery. Agent was written in Haskell and provided a client API as well as managed server-specific business logic such as power, WiFi, SSH keys, health metrics, and SSL certificates. Appmgr was written in Rust and was Start9’s novel container management system, responsible for installing, configuring, and running services.

EmbassyOS 0.3.0 removes all three components in favor of a single, unified backend codebase written entirely in Rust.

PatchDB

Start9’s own, purpose-built PatchDB is a data storage and transport system that implements the JSON Patch protocol to facilitate real-time state synchronization between server and clients. Whenever a state change occurs on the server, the change is communicated to one or more clients via websocket in the form of a nonced “Patch”, which itself consists of one or more “Operations”. You can think of a Patch as a “block”, and Operations as “transactions”. Patches must be ingested in sequence, and Operations direct state changes to be made atomically. In this way, state can be updated incrementally, maximizing efficiency without sacrificing reliability. If a client ever falls out of sync or falls sufficiently behind as to negate the efficiency of incremental updates, the client can request a database dump, essentially wiping the slate clean and starting fresh with the latest state.

Websocket Support

As explained above, server-side state changes are communicated to web clients in real time via websockets. This provides an exceptional experience. Despite physical distance, the user feels “plugged in”, as if their browser screen were directly attached to their Embassy.

OS/Data Bifurcation

With EmbassyOS 0.2.x, OS data, service data, and the OS itself were all stored together on a single microSD card. Amongst other drawbacks, this meant that a user could not re-flash the microSD with a new OS version without losing their data. This made both recovery procedures and standard OS updates challenging.

EmbassyOS 0.3.0 bifurcates the operating system from its data. Now, the microSD card stores a read-only copy of the operating system, some metadata, and enough space for a 2nd whole copy of EmbassyOS, enabling red/green updates and rollbacks!

OS and service data are stored on an attached SSD, separate from the OS itself.

Alternative Marketplaces

Beginning with EmbassyOS 0.3.0, users can access alternative service marketplaces. Anyone can host their own marketplace and make it available to others, and connecting to a new marketplace is a simple matter of entering its clearnet or Tor URL inside the settings menu. This is an important feature for ensuring Start9 does not come to occupy a central point of failure for service availability going forward.

Session Management

It is now possible to view your active sessions across various devices and log out remotely.

Revamped User Interface

The user interface has been rewritten and redesigned to be more performant, understandable, and beautiful :)

Comprehensive Backups

Creating backups in EmbassyOS 0.2.x required going service-to-service and backing them up one at a time. With 0.3.0, creating backups is now a single button. Additionally, you can continue to use your Embassy during the backup process and monitor progress in real time.

LAN Shared Folders (for backups)

EmbassyOS now supports creating encrypted backups “over the air” to a LAN Shared Folder — that is, a folder on your laptop/desktop (or an external drive) that you “share” with the Local Area Network (LAN). Because the Raspberry Pi cannot sufficiently power multiple physical drives without additional hardware, LAN Shared Folders are the recommended way to create backups. This flow is also the groundwork for remote backups.

Streamlined OS Updates

Previously, updating EmbassyOS was a blocking procedure. Meaning, while an OS update was taking place, Embassy was unusable. Now, updates take place in the background, and Embassy continues to run as usual. This is important for achieving maximum uptime while also providing real time progress reports during the update process.

Self-Contained Setup Flow

In 0.2.x, setting up an Embassy involved downloading a native Setup App from the App Store or Play Store. With 0.3.0, we are proud to eliminate this dependency on Apple and Google in favor of a self-contained web application served by EmbassyOS itself. Now, setting up an Embassy is a matter of plugging it in and visiting embassy.local from your browser of choice. EmbassyOS then guides you through a few simple steps, ultimately resulting in three artifacts: (1) a unique Tor (.onion) address, (2) a unique LAN (.local) address, and (3) a self-signed Root Certificate Authority for SSL (https) encrypted communication over LAN. After setup, embassy.local ceases to exist, and Embassy is thereafter reachable on either its unique Tor address or its unique LAN address. By necessity, the initial setup flow is facilitated over unencrypted http, but under the hood, communications are encrypted using your Embassy’s unique product key; so as long as you do not expose your product key, even someone naively snooping on your LAN during setup cannot hijack information.

Form-Based Service Config

EmbassyOS 0.2.x touted a graphical method for configuring services. Instead of requiring users to use SSH and edit config files from the command line, which can be daunting and prone to error, we developed a graphical user interface that enabled configuration through the Embassy dashboard. In 0.3.0, we made service config even better, granting it a full face lift, including a cleaner aesthetic, better indicators, and more guided error messaging.

Improved Logging

Embassy and service-specific logs are now paginated, such that users can scroll back through time to view older logs. This is highly useful for system insight, including and especially debugging. They are also now brought to you in beautiful technicolor :)

Diagnostic UI

This is a new user interface that will show in the event that EmbassyOS is unable to discover or access an expected data drive. This might happen if you unplug your SSD or plug in the wrong SSD. Embassy will boot to the diagnostic UI, explain clearly what the issue is and provide suggestions for fixing it.

Enhanced Dev Tools

EmbassyOS package developers use creativity and skill to shape the end user experience for a given service. EmbassyOS translates their choices and code into standard UI elements that anyone can understand. They are, in effect, the always-present, helping hand that makes running a personal server accessible to non-technical users. With EmbassyOS 0.3.0, we are giving developers even more power with an unified, turing complete API for things such as backup and restore, GUI configuration, server metrics, server properties, notifications, health checks, Actions, and dependency requirements and interactions.

Arbitrary Inputs for Actions

In 0.2.x, package developers could define Actions, arbitrary scripts for users to execute, such as resyncing Bitcoin from genesis. So rather than requiring users to use SSH and the command line, they could simply click a button that says “resync blockchain”, and the script would be executed under the hood. With EmbassyOS 0.3.0, Scripts can now receive user inputs of arbitrary complexity, such as a string value or a deeply nested form.

Progress Reporting

With EmbassyOS 0.3.0, we introduce visual progress reporting for service installs/updates, Embassy updates, service backups, and full Embassy recoveries.

Multiple Interfaces

In EmbassyOS 0.2.0, each installed service received its own Tor Address (.onion URL). For some services, such as File Browser, the URL represented a website that could be visited in the browser; for other services, such as Bitcoin, the URL had to be input into a native client wallet such as Fully Noded or Specter. Certain services, such as Bitcoin, actually have multiple interfaces. Bitcoin has an RPC interface, a P2P interface, a ZeroMQ interface, and could potentially even have a graphical User interface, such as a dashboard displaying important node information. Using the same URL for these various interfaces is not only confusing, it could potentially pose a security vulnerability. For example, a user may want to share their P2P interface address with someone for peering but not want to give out their UI address, which is for private use only. As such, EmbassyOS 0.3.0 assigns a unique URL for every interface. Users can view and access all interfaces for a given service inside the new “Interfaces’’ section of the service dashboard.

Advanced Dependency Management

EmbassyOS 0.2.x introduced a generalized dependency management system, such that services would be aware of services they depend on. For example, C-Lightning depends on Bitcoin. If Bitcoin is not installed, configured properly, or actively running, C-Lightning can inform the user of the unmet dependency and refuse to start up until the dependency is satisfied.

In 0.3.0, we redesigned the dependency management system to be even smarter and more robust. Now, services can depend on any aspect of another service. For example, a service might require another service to have been running for at least 10 minutes before starting up itself.

Health Checks

One of the most critical duties of a server operator is to monitor the health of your services. For example, a simple health check that monitors the availability of an LND node could mean the difference between that node having a poor reputation or a great one. Sometimes, it is not obvious when a service is unhealthy, especially since “health” is a subjective term. For example, is your Bitcoin node “healthy” if it is not fully synced? In EmbassyOS 0.3.0, package developers define what constitutes health and implement health checks according to subjective criteria that are then displayed to the user in easily digestible messages, complete with icons and colors. Health checks are completely arbitrary and turing complete, meaning they can include anything, including config options and internal or external dependencies! For example, a Lightning wallet package developer could say “this service is only healthy if (1) it is fully synced, (2) Bitcoin is fully synced, (3) LND is fully synced, and (4) if and only if the user has opted for real-time pricing from a third party website, that third party website must be reachable.” Enormous power.