Production Notes on LIGHTNING_OVERWRITES_01
- Introduction
- About Steganography
- Structure of the Work
- Lightning Network and sat
- Web Page and Streaming Structure
- Payment Flow Using LNbits
- Zap.stream and YouTube
- Overall System Structure
- Production with an AI Agent
- Conclusion
Introduction
《LIGHTNING_OVERWRITES_01》 is an online LIVE work in which payments sent through Bitcoin’s Lightning Network appear as traces of light on a photograph.
When a viewer sends Bitcoin, the payment triggers a robot to draw a ⚡ mark in real time onto a B0-size photographic print. An invisible act of payment is transformed into a physical act of drawing, gradually overwriting the photograph.
Screenshot 2026-07-05 11.57.49
The LIVE schedule is as follows:
July 5 Sun 11:00 / 13:00 / 18:00 / 21:00
July 6 Mon 21:00
July 7 Tue 11:00 / 13:00 / 18:00 / 21:00
lightning-overwrites.steganography.tokyo
About Steganography
The word “steganography” in our name, STEGANOGRAPHY TOKYO, refers to the technique of hiding one piece of information inside another.
In this work, the location where the photograph was taken in Israel is not directly shown as a place name. Instead, it is quietly indicated on the project page in the form of coordinates. The place, left only as coordinates, is silently embedded within the work as “hidden information.”
Why is it necessary, in 2026, to draw light onto this photograph and to overwrite it? This question is at the core of 《LIGHTNING_OVERWRITES_01》.
Structure of the Work
This work connects photography, Lightning payments, a web page, LIVE streaming, and robotic drawing.
Viewers can send sats, the smallest unit of Bitcoin, through the payment links displayed on the project page. When a payment is confirmed, the system recognizes it as a trigger, and the robot in the production environment draws a ⚡ mark onto the photograph. This process is shown through the LIVE stream, allowing viewers to see their own payment appear as a trace on the photograph.
The flow is as follows:
A viewer sends 21 / 210 / 2100 sats via the Lightning Network
↓
LNbits records the payment
↓
The total sats and payment history on the project page are updated
↓
The Mac in the production environment checks the payment
↓
The robot draws a ⚡ mark onto the photograph
↓
The process is shared through the LIVE stream
Lightning Network and sat
The Lightning Network is a system for sending Bitcoin quickly in small amounts. A sat, or satoshi, is the smallest unit of Bitcoin.
1 BTC = 100,000,000 sats.
At the exchange rate as of July 5, 2026, approximately:
21 sats = about 2 yen
210 sats = about 21 yen
2100 sats = about 210 yen
The size of the ⚡ mark changes depending on the number of sats sent.
Web Page and Streaming Structure
The work is presented through an online project page.
The project page displays the LIVE stream, payment links, payment history, total sats, and the number of drawings. Viewers can send Lightning payments while watching the page and confirm how their payment is transformed into the robot’s drawing.
The project page is designed so that viewing, participation, and recording can be experienced as one continuous flow by placing the LIVE stream and the payment interface on the same screen.
As a rule, the robot moves only during LIVE streaming. If a payment is sent outside streaming hours, it is not treated as a real-time drawing trigger.
Payment Flow Using LNbits
The payment system uses LNbits.
lnbits.com
LNbits - Free Open Source Bitcoin Lightning Wallet Accounts System
LNbits - Free Open Source Bitcoin Lightning Wallet Accounts System
https://lnbits.com/
LNbits offers a service called LNbits SaaS, which can be used on an hourly basis. It is also possible to pay for it using Lightning.
LNbits Pay Links were suitable for this work because they allowed us to create fixed payment routes. Viewers do not need to configure anything complicated; they can participate simply by sending a specified amount from a Lightning wallet.
Zap.stream and YouTube
In the early stages of production, we also considered using Zap.stream, a decentralized live-streaming service, as a way to connect LIVE streaming and Lightning payments.
zap.stream - Nostr Live Streaming
Nostr live streaming powered by Bitcoin lightning. Stream freely with Bitcoin payments, no censorship, open source.
Zap.stream is a streaming platform that combines the Lightning Network with Nostr, a decentralized social networking protocol. Viewers can send tips called Zaps during a stream using Lightning.
One of its key features is that the streamer pays their own server costs, which means there is no platform fee being deducted in the middle. The server cost is also very low: in our testing environment, it was around 1 sat per minute, or about 0.9 USD even for 24 hours of streaming.
However, during implementation, there were moments when stable operation was difficult, such as instability in the management dashboard. For this reason, we ultimately decided not to complete the work entirely on Zap.stream, and instead switched to a structure centered on YouTube and LNbits Pay Links.
Overall System Structure
Location / Role
LNbits (cloud)
Receives Lightning payments and records payment history
VPS (public website)
Displays Pay Links / QR codes and payment history via webhook
Venue Mac
Monitors payments and sends drawing commands to Root
Viewer payment → payment received by LNbits → Mac polls the API → robot draws a ⚡ mark onto the photographic print.
For the drawing, we use an educational robot by iRobot connected to the Mac in the production environment. On the Mac side, the system periodically checks the LNbits payment history. When a new payment is detected, that payment is treated as a drawing trigger.
Production with an AI Agent
The system for this work was created using the AI Agent in Cursor, mainly in Auto mode. Although STEGANOGRAPHY TOKYO includes members who are knowledgeable about cryptography and engineering, the production of this work was completed entirely by non-engineers.
The idea for this work had existed for about a year, but at that time it was still difficult for non-engineers alone to build something we were satisfied with.
In that sense, this work was made possible not only by the Lightning Network and the robot, but also by the AI Agent.
Conclusion
《LIGHTNING_OVERWRITES_01》 is a work that transforms Bitcoin Lightning payments into traces of light appearing on a photograph. Its concept is not simply to use Bitcoin as a tool, but to ask why this photograph needs to be overwritten.
#Bitcoin #LightningNetwork #BTC #Photography #Art #Photo #Antiwar
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