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Once you’ve tested on signet, testing on mainnet is the same flow with real bitcoin. In this guide you’ll use bark to create a mainnet wallet, fund it over Lightning, and make your first payments on Second’s mainnet Ark server. Bytes adventure Bytes adventure
Mainnet uses real bitcoin. Start with small amounts while you get familiar with the tooling. Restoring a wallet requires both your mnemonic and backup of its database, so save your mnemonic and set up continuous backups of your wallet’s data directory. Don’t store more than you’re willing to lose.
Building on mainnet? Head to chat.second.tech and ping Neil (982572) to get a dedicated support channel set up for your team. Slack and Signal are also available on request.

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Create your wallet

1

Verify Bark is installed

To ensure that bark is installed, run bark --version. Follow the installation instructions if you need to.
2

Create a new mainnet wallet

Create a wallet pointed at Second’s mainnet Ark server.
3

Check your balance

You should see all balances at zero:

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Add bitcoin to your wallet

The quickest way to fund your wallet is to send bitcoin from any Lightning wallet.
1

Generate a BOLT11 invoice

2

Pay the invoice

Pay the invoice from your preferred Lightning wallet, and the sats will arrive in your Ark wallet instantly.
3

Confirm your VTXOs

The output will look something like:
You can also receive via an Ark payment or by boarding instead. Learn more about Ark payments.

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Make a Lightning payment

1

Get a BOLT11 invoice

Using a separate Lightning wallet, generate a BOLT11 invoice, or ask a friend or colleague to generate one.
2

Pay the invoice

Replace <bolt11-invoice> with the full invoice string. The payment is routed over Lightning, so anyone with a Lightning wallet can receive it.

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Make an Ark payment

If you have a friend or colleague on the same Ark server, you can also make an Ark payment.
1

Get an Ark address

Ask them for their Ark address.
2

Send some sats

Replace <ark-address> with their Ark address and <amount> with the number of sats to send.
3

Verify the payment

Run bark vtxos again to see your new VTXO (change from the payment).

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Refresh your VTXOs

Your VTXOs have a limited lifetime and must be periodically refreshed in a round. Unlike our signet server, which runs a round every 30 seconds for testing, the mainnet server runs rounds much less frequently, so a refresh may take longer to confirm.
The bark CLI requires you to refresh manually. Wallet apps built on the Bark SDK typically automate refreshes for users.

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Getting your money out, aka offboarding

You can offboard your bitcoin back to a regular on-chain UTXO. This is the cheapest and fastest way to leave Ark.
If the Ark server is uncooperative, you can always perform an emergency exit instead. For more on how offboarding works, see Offboarding in the Learn section.

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Start building

Now that you have a feel for how fast payments are across both Lightning and Ark, you’re ready to start building. There are two integration paths depending on your use case:

Bark SDK

For mobile and desktop apps where users hold their own keys.

Barkd

For exchanges, e-commerce, and services where you manage bitcoin.

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Share your feedback

You’ve now made some of the first ever Bark transactions on mainnet across both Lightning and Ark. We’re excited to see what you build! Let us know if there are any more guides you’d like to see, and please share any feedback on the developer experience.