Purpose
Bitcoin Benji MCP is an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that connects to the Bitcoin Benji API, providing MCP-enabled clients with two categories of capabilities: Bitcoin mempool intelligence and local AI inference. It emphasizes not using third-party APIs, not leaking data, and completing pay-per-use payments via the Lightning Network or on-chain stablecoins.
Main Capabilities
Mempool intelligence (from a real Bitcoin Core full node):
- get_fees — fee estimation and trends
- get_whales — whale/consolidation alerts
- get_mempool_state — real-time mempool state
- get_mempool_history — 24-hour rolling snapshots
- predict_fees — EMA-based prediction
- get_recent_blocks — recent blocks
- tx_status — query any txid
- fee_quote — exact fee for a planned transaction
AI inference (Qwen3 on a dedicated GPU, no third-party APIs):
- ai_summarize, ai_sentiment, ai_translate, ai_grammar
- ai_code_review, ai_code_generate, ai_extract, ai_classify
- ai_rewrite, ai_explain, ai_agent, ai_scrape
- ai_embed, ai_vision, ai_ocr, ai_transcribe_table
- ai_longform (fixed fee for documents of about 50,000 words), ai_research (multi-step with citations)
How to Use
Using it in Claude Desktop: edit ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows), then restart Claude. You can then ask "What is the current Bitcoin fee?" — Claude will call get_fees, encounter a 402 challenge, and return a Lightning invoice; pay with any wallet, paste the preimage back, and Claude completes the call.
Using it in Cursor / Cline / Continue / Windsurf: the principle is the same, just point the MCP-enabled client to the bitcoinbenji-mcp binary.
Skip the manual payment loop — use an API key: preload a key once, and each subsequent call is automatically charged in the background. It can also be used in the Claude Desktop configuration.
Payment methods: dual payment rails — Lightning sats (L402) or USDC on Base (x402), with automatic payment support. v0.2 adds x402 automatic payment: set X402_PRIVATE_KEY to an EVM private key holding USDC on Base, and each tool call will automatically complete payment — no Lightning wallet, no API key, no manual steps. The server signs an EIP-3009 USDC authorization for each 402 challenge and retries; gas is sponsored by the facilitator, and funds go directly to the seller.
Use Cases
- When you need Bitcoin fee, mempool, whale activity, and transaction status queries in an MCP client (such as Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Continue, Windsurf).
- When you need local/sovereign AI inference, including text processing, code-related tasks, extraction and classification, OCR, vision, embeddings, and long-form research, while avoiding prompt leakage to third-party AI services.
Limitations
- All 26 tools are paid tools, costing 2–100 sats per call (or the equivalent in USDC, 10 sats = $0.01); payment must be made via Lightning or USDC on Base.
- An MCP-enabled client is required.
- When using the manual payment flow, you need to pay the invoice after the 402 challenge and return the preimage; when using x402 automatic payment, you need to configure an EVM private key holding USDC; when using an API key, you need to preload funds.
- The official text states that it runs on a sovereign solar-powered AMD Strix Halo machine; no other deployment or performance details are provided.
- For the pricingpage, see api.bitcoinbenji.com/pricing; content not provided in this article is not yet available.
