cairn.
early access android · pre-launch

A marker over
your stack.

Bitcoin-only widgets and a dashboard that keeps watch over your cold storage. Watch-only by design — keys never enter the app. Free, and collects nothing by default.

Download the APK

Sideload it. 11.2 MB · Android 8.0+
Not on the Play Store yet.

The Cairn app icon — a balanced cairn of stones on Bitcoin orange
live · same data as the app

Bitcoin, right now.

connecting…

A glance at what Cairn puts on your homescreen: price, network, and the Cycle Lab, read live from the same sources the app uses. Read-only, like everything here.

btc / usd
low high 24h
cycle lab · composite
/ 100
mempool fees
fast
normal
slow
sat/vB · next block
block height
hashrate
3-day average
next halving
Cycle Lab indicators · 30-day trend
Latest Bitcoin headlines

Updated . On-chain metrics are daily-close. Not financial advice.

why cairn

The constraints are the product.

Every other Bitcoin app on Android either launders shitcoins next to your price ticker or wants your keys. Cairn does neither, on purpose.

Bitcoin only

No shitcoins, ever. The signal is what's left when you remove everything that isn't Bitcoin.

No accounts, no KYC

No sign-up. No backend that knows your name. Everything stays on your device.

Watch-only

Cairn can watch but never spend. Read-only, always. Nothing here could move a single sat.

Point at your own node

Override every data endpoint and point Cairn at your own node. Free of API gatekeepers.

the stack · the best bit

It keeps watch on your cold storage.

Add an xpub, an output descriptor, a single address, or a Lightning wallet over NWC. Cairn watches it and tells you the moment it moves, especially when you didn't move it. Read-only, so it can watch but never touch.

Watch anything

An xpub or descriptor, a single public address, or a Lightning wallet via NWC. Whatever you want an eye on, in one list.

Hidden, if you want

Tell a wallet never to show its balance: not in the app, not on the widget, not even behind the eyeball. It still watches. It still alerts. The number just stays yours.

The moment it moves

Alerts on any change, up or down. There's also a spend alert that fires the instant an outgoing transaction hits the mempool, before it confirms. An unexpected spend is worth checking on.

On your phone, in your inbox

A notification with sound, an email, or both. Email, if you switch it on, sends a bare "a wallet changed" note and nothing more.

What you watch is encrypted on the device with the Android Keystore and never leaves it. There's no account, and no Cairn server holding your wallets. Turn email alerts on and the only thing that ever leaves is the email address you verify and a bare "a wallet changed" note: never which wallet, the amount, or the bitcoin address. Leave email off and nothing leaves the phone.

getting it on your phone

Sideload it in three steps.

You're installing outside the Play Store, so Android will ask for permission once. This is normal for a beta.

01

Download the APK

Tap the download button on your Android phone. The file lands in your downloads folder.

02

Allow the install

Android will ask whether to allow installs from this source. Say yes, just this once.

03

Open Cairn

Tap the file, install, then pin your first widget. The cairn is just stones until you start.

verify, don't trust

Don't take our word for any of it. The full source is public — read it, rebuild it, and check what you downloaded. Three ways, strongest first.

Read the source the whole app is open — audit what it does, or rebuild it and compare against the file hash below
read the source on nostr →
Signing certificate proves the build is genuinely ours: same key every release, enforced by Android on update
apksigner verify --print-certs cairn-latest.apk
cert sha-2563bb8404bea87a058db40a1a6792ab64128bf2e6fd6a4b8f549613eb689d087d1
File checksum confirms the download arrived intact
sha256sum cairn-latest.apk
macOS shasum -a 256 · Windows Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256
file sha-256d1e36385a8a9a6255035f58ec6ac2806318a03f57c384ca4205b361e9cd3c323

A signed F-Droid build, verifiable independently, is planned for a later release.

ready

Set your marker on the homescreen.

v0.9.10 · beta · 11.2 MB · Android 8.0+
Free. No ads, no analytics, no KYC.