Bitcoin

Assist with Bitcoin transactions, wallets, Lightning, and security decisions.

Security Scan

The skill is an instruction-only Bitcoin/Lightning guidance document that asks for no credentials or installs and stays focused on wallet, transaction, fee, privacy, and mempool.info checks — it is internally consistent with its stated purpose.

Purpose & Capability

The name and description (Bitcoin transactions, wallets, Lightning, security) match the SKILL.md content: troubleshooting tips, fee guidance, mempool API examples, privacy and scam advice. There are no unrelated dependencies, binaries, or env vars requested.

Instruction Scope

Runtime instructions are guidance and concrete curl examples against mempool.space for tx and address lookups. The skill does not instruct the agent to read local files, access system credentials, or exfiltrate user secrets. It stays within the stated domain (wallet/tx/Lightning/security).

Install Mechanism

There is no install spec and no code files — the lowest-risk model: nothing is written to disk or installed by the skill.

Credentials

The skill requires no environment variables, credentials, or config paths. It references mempool.space API calls (appropriate for blockchain lookups). It does not request or imply access to unrelated services or secrets.

Persistence & Privilege

The skill is not always-enabled and uses the default model-invocation setting. It does not request persistent modifications to agent/system configuration or elevated privileges.

Assessment

This skill is a read-only, instruction-only Bitcoin/Lightning help document and appears coherent with its stated purpose. Before using it: do not paste or type private keys, seed phrases, or other secrets into the agent; be aware that the example curl commands will send txids/addresses to mempool.space (which may have privacy implications), so avoid including personally identifying data if you care about privacy; verify external endpoints (mempool.space) are the ones you expect; and note the skill has no published homepage or known author — if provenance matters to you, prefer guidance from verified/trusted sources. If you need action that requires secrets (signing, sending transactions, unlocking wallets), perform those steps only in trusted wallet software or hardware devices, not by sharing secrets with the agent.

Wallet Compatibility Traps

• Same seed phrase in different wallets can show zero balance — derivation paths differ (BIP44 for legacy, BIP84 for native segwit, BIP86 for taproot). Ask which wallet created the seed before troubleshooting "missing funds"
• Importing a seed into a watch-only wallet won't show funds if the wallet defaults to a different address type than the original
• Some exchanges still reject bc1p (taproot) addresses for withdrawals — verify before giving the user a taproot address

Fee Timing

• Bitcoin fees follow predictable patterns: weekends and UTC night hours (00:00-06:00) are typically 50-80% cheaper than weekday peaks
• mempool.space/api/v1/fees/recommended gives current sat/vB rates — wallet built-in estimates are often 12-24 hours stale
• A transaction at 1 sat/vB during high congestion can stay unconfirmed for 2+ weeks, but will eventually drop from mempools (not fail, just disappear)

Stuck Transaction Recovery

• RBF (Replace-By-Fee): sender broadcasts new tx with higher fee — only works if original was flagged replaceable (most modern wallets do this by default now)
• CPFP (Child-Pays-For-Parent): receiver creates a high-fee tx spending the unconfirmed output, incentivizing miners to confirm both — useful when sender didn't enable RBF
• If user is the receiver and stuck tx has no change output to them, CPFP won't help — they must wait or ask sender to RBF

Lightning Network Gotchas

• Lightning invoices expire (default 1 hour on many wallets) — an expired invoice cannot receive payment even if the payer tries
• "Inbound liquidity" limits how much a user can receive — a fresh channel can send but not receive until the balance shifts
• Closing a channel during high on-chain fees can cost more than the channel balance — warn users before force-closing small channels
• Lightning payments are not automatically retried — if a route fails, the user must manually retry or the payment fails permanently

Privacy and Security Patterns

• Dust attacks: tiny amounts sent to addresses to link them when user spends — advise not to consolidate dust with main UTXOs
• Address reuse lets anyone see full transaction history of that address — each receive should use a fresh address
• Clipboard malware silently replaces copied addresses — always verify first and last 6 characters match on both devices before confirming send
• Hardware wallet "verify on device" step is critical — if malware changed the address, only the device screen shows the real destination

Scam Recognition

• "Send X BTC, receive 2X back" is always a scam — no exceptions, even if the account looks official
• "Recovery services" that ask for seed phrase will steal everything — legitimate recovery never needs the seed
• Fake wallet apps in app stores with slight name variations — verify publisher and download count before recommending
• "Support" DMing users on social media asking to "validate wallet" or "sync" — real support never initiates contact

Verification APIs

• mempool.space is the current standard block explorer — blockchain.info is outdated and less reliable for fee data
• Transaction confirmed = included in a block. 1 confirmation is minimum, 6 is standard for high-value, some exchanges require 3
• Check raw tx with: curl -s "https://mempool.space/api/tx/{txid}" — returns full transaction details including fee, size, confirmation status
• For address balance: curl -s "https://mempool.space/api/address/{address}" — shows funded/spent totals