bitcoin_skill

Overview

This skill helps users manage Bitcoin transactions, wallets, Lightning channels, and security decisions. It focuses on practical troubleshooting, fee timing, recovery methods for stuck transactions, and scam avoidance. The guidance emphasizes concrete commands and checks you can run immediately to verify status and protect funds.

How this skill works

I inspect wallet compatibility, transaction state, mempool fee signals, and Lightning channel health to suggest actions like RBF, CPFP, or safe channel closure. I reference live APIs (mempool.space) for raw transaction and address queries and translate those results into step-by-step recovery or security advice. The skill flags common pitfalls like derivation path mismatch, invoice expiry, and clipboard malware so users take the right verification steps.

When to use it

• When a wallet shows a zero balance after importing a seed or recovery phrase
• If a transaction remains unconfirmed for many hours or days
• Before generating or sharing a taproot (bc1p) address for withdrawals
• When opening, receiving to, or force-closing a Lightning channel
• To verify a suspicious support message, app, or recovery offer

Best practices

• Ask which wallet originally created a seed before troubleshooting missing funds (derivation paths differ)
• Always use a fresh receive address and avoid consolidating dust with main UTXOs
• Verify copied addresses by checking the first and last 6 characters on the hardware device
• Check live fee estimates via mempool.space rather than relying only on wallet estimates
• Enable RBF when sending if your wallet supports it; keep small channels closed during high on-chain fee periods

Example use cases

• User imports a seed and sees zero balance — identify derivation path and direct them to the correct wallet type (BIP44/BIP84/BIP86)
• Transaction stuck for 48+ hours — determine if RBF is available or recommend CPFP with fee calculation
• Preparing to receive funds from an exchange — confirm the exchange accepts taproot addresses before providing bc1p
• Lightning invoice failed — check invoice expiry and inbound liquidity and recommend retries or channel rebalancing
• User reports a suspicious message asking for seed — confirm it's a scam and walk through safe reporting steps