Lunanode Setup

Lunanode Hosting

Lunanode is a Canadian hoster specializing in hosting BTCPay Server and partner and sponsor of BTCPay Server.

For about €5,- per month you can run your own BTCPay server at Lunanode. This BTCPay server can be used to receive payments via Bitcoin and Lightning in your own online store or at the POS.

The installation can be done without any previous knowledge is a few clicks. Here you will find a step-by-step guide to set up your own BTCPay server including a full Bitcoin Node and the LND Lightning Network.

Create an account with Lunanode

Registration with Lunanode requires an email address and a cell phone number for SMS authorization.

Personal data and details are not collected.

Wer eine Rechnung auf seinen Namen bzw. Firma benötigt, kann diese Angaben optional bei LunaNode hinterlegen.

In the Account section, under Billing Info, there is the option to enter the relevant information.

Each time a deposit is made to the hosting account, one will receive a corresponding invoice with the details that have been provided. Subsequent creation of the invoice is not possible. Therefore, you should do this before making your first deposit.

This information is optional and can be omitted if no invoice is required.

After creating an account, the account must be loaded with credit.

Hosting is paid from this credit on a daily basis.

Lunanode offers payment by PayPal and by credit card.

In addition, the payment by cryptocurrencies.

Through the Coinbase option, payments can be made by ETH, LTC, BCH, DAI, LTC and USDC.

Generate API Key

After the credit has been made, click on the API button in the upper right corner of the navigation menu.

You will be taken to the following page, where an API key must be generated.

No entries need to be made in the fields. These are options that can be ignored.

After clicking Create API, you will get an API ID and a longer API Key.

Set up BTCPay server

After that, go to the website https://launchbtcpay.lunanode.com/.

On this page the previously generated API ID and API Key will be entered.

At this point, one orders the LunaNode package m.2 for $7 a month. This is absolutely sufficient to run a BTCPay server for bitcoin payment processing with Lightning.

After clicking Continue, the following page will appear.

A separate sub-domain is generated for the BTCPayServer. But you can also use your own sub-domain. However, you can change this at a later time. Therefore, it is recommended to continue with the domain suggested by Lunanode at this point.

On the next page, you specify which cryptocurrencies you want to accept. Bitcoin and Lightning is already selected with BTC.

If one selects even more cryptocurrencies, additional storage space is required because the respective blockchain has to be stored on the server.

This would increase the original price accordingly.

Lunanode recommends the m.4 package for about $14 per month if you use Bitcoin and Lightning.

If you want it a little cheaper, you can also set up Bitcoin and Lightning payments with m.2 for $7 a month. We have already set up a few projects under m.2 and have had good experiences.

You can also start with m.2 now and upgrade to m.4 at a later date.

Optionally, an email address can be stored, via which one is informed when the installation is completed. If you don’t enter an address, you will receive the corresponding hints via the email address of the Lunanode account.

As a network, you leave it at Mainnet.

Lightning implementation relies on LND or on C-Lightning to be able to receive Lightning payments as well.

If you are unsure which version to use, we recommend LND.

The check mark for Acceleration should remain set if you book additional computing power for a one-time fee of $3. This makes sense so that the blockchain can be synchronized more quickly. Without the addition, the process then takes about a week. For the additional price, the synchronization process is already completed after 2-3 days.

All other settings are optional. It is recommended that no changes or settings are made at this point for the time being.

All settings can still be changed at a later time.

We click on Launch VM and the following message appears.

DNS Setup

You have received a domain from Lunanode something like btcpay9531754.lndyn.com.

You can also hang this address under your own domain so you can use a domain call like btcpay.my-domain.com.

This is useful if you want to avoid warnings for potential pishing attacks or deceptive warnings. Then the BTCPay server is behind the https key of your own website.

Likewise, it looks better and more trustworthy for one’s customers if the Bitcoin payment page is associated with the store’s accessed domain.

For this you have to look up the External IP of the BTCPayServer at Lunanode.

You can find the External IPv4 under Virtual Machines on the dashboard.

After that you have to create a corresponding DNS entry for the domain. You do this with the provider who manages the domain.

An A record must be created within DNS Management.

For the domain btcpay.my-domain.com an A-record btcpaywith the Lunanode IPv4 address is created.

After that, log in to the BTCPayServer and go to Server Settings Maintenance.