New Mint

This is the suggested path to a fully sovereign mint: every service run and hosted by you, on hardware you control. Build the stack from the bottom up, then connect Orchard to each service to manage everything from one place.

1. System — the soil. A machine you control, set up and secured, with room for every service.

2. Bitcoin node — the roots of your mint. Your own Bitcoin node, the source of truth your Lightning node trusts.

3. Lightning node — processes deposits and withdrawals from the mint, anchored to the Bitcoin node below it.

4. Cashu mint — issues and redeems ecash against that Lightning node.

5. Orchard — the manager. Install Orchard, point it at everything above, and tend the whole stack from one dashboard.

Once all five are in place, you operate the mint from the Orchard dashboard. Already run some of these services yourself? See Install to connect Orchard to a stack you already have.

Already have part of the stack?

Already running a Bitcoin or Lightning node? Pick up at the step you still need. To install Orchard and connect services you already run, see Install.

The guides we build on

Orchard manages Bitcoin infrastructure; it is not a Bitcoin or Lightning distribution. Rather than reinvent and maintain our own bare-metal setup steps, we hand the base layers (System, Bitcoin, and Lightning) off to a guide that already does this well, and note the Orchard-specific adjustments on each step. Two guides shaped this path:

RaspiBolt (the origin) The Raspberry Pi guide we learned these best practices from. It does not port cleanly to Linux. Only use this if you are familiar with server setup.

MiniBolt (what we recommend) The same best practices, already built for Linux on capable hardware. The purpose-fit path for a public-facing mint, and where our base-layer steps hand off.

Orchard’s own docs pick up where MiniBolt leaves off, at the Cashu mint and Orchard.

Node-in-a-box setups

Umbrel, Start9, and similar appliances are great for plug-and-play self-hosting, but not the right fit here. They run pre-packaged apps on an OS you do not fully control, tuned for private use. A mint is public-facing infrastructure, and this path builds and hardens each base layer yourself.

Where to start

1. System Prepare and harden the machine the whole stack runs on.

2. Bitcoin Node Run Bitcoin and let it sync — the chain everything else settles to.

3. Lightning Node Run a Lightning node on top of your Bitcoin node.

4. Cashu Mint Run a Cashu mint backed by your Lightning node.

5. Orchard Install Orchard and manage the whole stack from one dashboard.

After new mint

Your Orchard Stack built and managed? Operate the mint from the dashboard.

Connect an existing stack Already run your own services? The Install pages connect Orchard to them.