How to withdraw Bitcoin via Lightning Network (Tutorial 3)

Congratulations! You bought your first Bitcoin on VBTC and are now looking to withdraw your Bitcoin from the platform.

But hold up, what is that… 0.001 BTC withdrawal fees for onchain transactions?

If you only bought a small amount of Bitcoin and are mostly looking to transfer it to other Bitcoin users or services, you might instead consider using the Lightning Network for your withdrawals.

0,00001 BTC & 0,1% in withdrawal fees make it unfairly cheap especially for small value transactions!

But how do I get started with using the Lightning Network?

First of all, you need to be able to have a Lightning Wallet.

If you want to withdraw now from VBTC to your Lightning Wallet, create a Lightning invoice over the amount you are looking to withdraw.

 Those screenshots are from Eclair Wallet - a Lightning Wallet for more advanced users

On VBTC, go to “Withdrawals” and click “Withdraw Bitcoin”.

Choose option “Lightning Network”

Enter the amount of Sats you are looking to withdraw and copy your matching Lightning invoice into the corresponding field.

Please make sure that the amount you withdraw from VBTC and the amount you request via your Lightning Invoice are matching, otherwise the withdrawal can’t be processed.

And that’s it!

Since withdrawals are processed manually by our team due to security reasons, the withdrawals are not instant (as the Bitcoin on chain withdrawals are) but should generally arrive in your wallet within a couple of hours during normal business hours.

If you want to learn more about the Lightning Network and are based in Vietnam, we also strongly recommend joining the regular local Bitcoin meetups in Saigon where a variety of entrepreneurs are building various services with & on the Lightning Network.