Lightning Labs Releases Developer Tools for Powering APIs and Large Language Models

• "We’re excited to announce the release of a new set of developer tools to enable the Lightning and AI developer communities to build global, inclusive, and out-of-the-box cost effective LLM (Large Language Model) tooling which seamlessly incorporates Lightning and bitcoin."
• "These tools are built on the L402 protocol, a Lightning native authentication mechanism, and Langchain, a popular library to simplify working with AI agents by adding external data to allow for more advanced functionality."
• "LangChainBitcoin: a suite of tools that enables Langchain agents to directly interact with Bitcoin and also the Lightning Network, including two main features:
  
  - LLM Agent BitcoinTools: a series of tools that leverages the newly released OpenAI GPT function calls to enable developers to create agents that can hold a Bitcoin balance (on-chain and Lightning), send/receive Bitcoin on Lightning, and also directly drive with a LND node.
  - L402 HTTP API Traversal: a Python wrapper for a LangChain LLM chain (APIChain) that enables agents to transparently access L402 payment-metered APIs."
• "Aperture: the latest release of Aperture, a drop-in reverse proxy server implementation of the L402 protocol which can transform any API into a pay per use resource gated via L402 functionality and sats on the Lightning Network."
  
  - "Now with Lightning Node Connect Support: Aperture supports any Lightning Node running litd, a binary that bundles Lightning Labs’ services alongside LND, (e.g Voltage, Umbrel, Start9, Raspiblitz, BTCPayServer) through the Lightning Node Connect protocol, an end-to-end encrypted mechanism for connecting a Lightning node to a web browser."
  - "Rich Dynamic API Endpoint Pricing: Aperture now supports the ability to optionally provide full HTTP request context to the proxied backend to enable dynamic per-call pricing. In contrast to the existing static pricing configuration, dynamic pricing allows a backend to implement custom endpoint pricing logic."
• "L402 bLIP: a Bitcoin Lightning Improvement Proposal (bLIP) specification for the L402 protocol standard to openly share the primitives for building these components with the community."
• "With the tools we're releasing today, developers will be able to build more accessible AI infrastructure for both humans and agents alike."
• "And the time to build is now, with the AI4ALL hackathon starting this week and running for the whole month of July, we’re incredibly excited to release these tools to the community to see what can be built."

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