Learn · Freeze funds
Can Lightning FM freeze an artist's money?
No, and not because we promise not to. The platform never holds the money, so there is nothing to freeze, withhold, or seize. This page walks the money path end to end so you can check that claim rather than take it.
When a listener buys a track, the invoice they pay is minted by the artist's own wallet. That includes the hosted checkout we run for artists without their own node: the gate requests an invoice from the artist's wallet and hands it to the buyer. The sats settle from the buyer's wallet to the artist's wallet over the Lightning Network.
At no step does Lightning FM receive, hold, or forward funds. There is no platform balance, no artist account with money in it, no payout schedule, and no float. The platform's role in a sale is delivering the file after the artist's wallet confirms it was paid.
Freezing funds requires holding them. A platform that keeps artist balances can freeze a balance; a platform that queues payouts can pause the queue. Those powers exist wherever the money crosses the platform's books, whatever the platform's intentions.
Here the money never crosses our books, so the power never exists. This is the same architecture that makes our cut 0% structurally and makes refunds voluntary. One design decision, three consequences: no cut can be taken, no refund can be forced, no funds can be frozen.
We run conveniences, and conveniences can be withdrawn. We could delist an artist from our relay, stop hosting their files, or revoke a name@lightning.fm address. That is the full extent of our leverage, and it touches neither money already settled to the artist's wallet nor the catalog itself, which is Nostr events signed by the artist's own key and readable from public relays. An artist we cut off keeps every sat and every track, and leaving costs them nothing but arranging new hosting. A platform whose worst sanction is "you stop paying us for hosting" is the point.
What if Lightning FM were ordered to freeze an artist's funds?
There would be nothing to act on. We hold no balances, run no payout queue, and have no ledger of artist money. An order to freeze funds would land on a platform that has none. What we could be compelled to do is stop providing conveniences: delist from our relay, stop hosting files, revoke a lightning.fm name. None of that touches money the artist has already been paid, and none of it touches the catalog, which is signed data the artist can republish anywhere.
Can Lightning FM delay or withhold a payout?
There are no payouts to delay. A payout implies the platform collected the money first and passes it along later. Here the buyer pays an invoice minted by the artist's own wallet, and settlement is directly from buyer to artist. The artist has the money the moment the sale completes.
Can Lightning FM reverse a sale?
No. Lightning settlement is final and we are not in the money path. Refunds exist, but only as a new payment the artist voluntarily sends back. The refunds page covers exactly how that works.
Does the artist's choice of wallet matter?
Yes, and it is the honest edge of this guarantee. Our side of the flow holds nothing, so nothing on our side can be frozen. But an artist who receives into a custodial wallet has re-introduced a custodian at their end, and that custodian holds their money on whatever terms it sets. Artists who want the guarantee end to end can self-custody: the desktop app runs its own Lightning node, and the artist-node daemon does the same headlessly.
How is this different from a platform promising not to freeze funds?
A promise is a policy, and policies change with ownership, pressure, or terms-of-service updates. This is not a policy. The platform was built with no custody anywhere: no stored balances, no payout ledger, no float. A policy can be reversed by whoever runs the platform. An absence of custody cannot be reversed without rebuilding the platform into something else.