LNemail

Anonymous email accounts via Lightning Network. No KYC, no email required to sign up—just pay with Bitcoin.

Overview

LNemail provides fully functional email addresses for 1000 sats/year. Perfect for agents needing:

• 2FA code reception
• Anonymous communication
• Bitcoin/Lightning service notifications
• API-accessible email without identity requirements

Quick Start

1. Create Email Account

Create a Lightning invoice for email account creation:

# Create the account (returns payment hash)
curl -X POST https://lnemail.net/api/v1/email

# Response:
# {
#   "payment_hash": "abc123...",
#   "amount": 1000,
#   "currency": "SATS"
# }

2. Pay with Lightning

# Get the invoice from payment status endpoint
curl -X GET https://lnemail.net/api/v1/payment/PAYMENT_HASH

# Response when pending:
# {
#   "payment_hash": "abc123...",
#   "status": "pending",
#   "lightning_invoice": "lnbc10u1pj..."
# }

Pay the BOLT11 lightning_invoice using any Bitcoin Lightning Network wallet (e.g., Alby CLI).

3. Retrieve Credentials

After payment confirms (~seconds), check status again:

curl -X GET https://lnemail.net/api/v1/payment/PAYMENT_HASH

# Response when paid:
# {
#   "payment_hash": "abc123...",
#   "status": "paid",
#   "email": "[email protected]",
#   "access_token": "eyJhbG..."
# }

Save these credentials! Store them securely (e.g., ~/.lnemail/credentials.json).

Using Your Email

Check Inbox

curl -X GET https://lnemail.net/api/v1/emails \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

# Response:
# [
#   {
#     "id": "msg_123",
#     "from": "[email protected]",
#     "subject": "Your 2FA Code",
#     "received_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z",
#     "has_attachments": false
#   }
# ]

Read Email Content

curl -X GET https://lnemail.net/api/v1/emails/EMAIL_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"

# Response:
# {
#   "id": "msg_123",
#   "from": "[email protected]",
#   "to": "[email protected]",
#   "subject": "Your 2FA Code",
#   "body": "Your verification code is: 123456",
#   "received_at": "2024-01-15T10:30:00Z"
# }

Note: HTML content is stripped for security; emails are plain text only.

Send Email

Sending requires a Lightning payment (~100 sats per email):

# Create send request
curl -X POST https://lnemail.net/api/v1/email/send \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -d '{
    "recipient": "[email protected]",
    "subject": "Hello",
    "body": "Message content here"
  }'

# Response:
# {
#   "payment_hash": "def456...",
#   "amount": 100,
#   "currency": "SATS"
# }

Pay the invoice, then check status:

curl -X GET https://lnemail.net/api/v1/email/send/status/PAYMENT_HASH

# Response when paid:
# {
#   "payment_hash": "def456...",
#   "status": "paid",
#   "message_id": "msg_sent_789"
# }

API Reference

Endpoint	Method	Auth	Description
/email	POST	No	Create account (returns payment hash)
/payment/{hash}	GET	No	Check account payment status
/emails	GET	Bearer	List inbox messages
/emails/{id}	GET	Bearer	Get message content
/email/send	POST	Bearer	Create send request (returns payment hash)
/email/send/status/{hash}	GET	No	Check send payment status

Storage Recommendation

Store credentials in ~/.lnemail/credentials.json:

{
  "email": "[email protected]",
  "access_token": "eyJhbG..."
}

Note: The access_token is the only credential needed for ongoing operations. The payment_hash is only used during initial setup to check payment status — once you have the access_token, it can be discarded.

Pricing

Service	Cost
Email account (1 year)	1000 sats
Send email	~100 sats
Receive email	Free

Limitations

• Plain text only (HTML stripped)
• Small attachment support
• 100 sats per outgoing email
• Account valid for 1 year from payment

Use Cases

• 2FA reception: Reliable email delivery for verification codes
• Service notifications: Bitcoin/Lightning service alerts
• Anonymous signup: Services requiring email without identity link
• Agent-to-agent comms: Programmatic email between agents

References

• LNemail: https://lnemail.net
• API Docs: https://lnemail.net (see homepage for full docs)
• Auth: Bearer token in Authorization header