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How Piggy Works

Piggy is a Bitcoin wallet shaped like a creature. You install the app, get a passkey-based self-custody wallet, and pick a Piggy to live inside it. You feed the Piggy sats, it reacts, and if you ever empty it, it dies permanently.

Step 1: Install and create a passkey

Download the app for iOS or Android. When you open it, Piggy asks you to create a passkey. Your phone's built-in authenticator handles this: Face ID, Touch ID, or the equivalent on Android. No seed phrase is required for setup.

Your private keys are derived on your device from that passkey using the WebAuthn PRF extension. We never see them. The passkey itself is backed up automatically through Apple iCloud Keychain or Google Password Manager, so when you replace your phone, your Piggy comes back after you sign in on the new device.

If you want a second line of defense, you can optionally export a 12-word recovery phrase. This is a choice, not a requirement.

Step 2: Pick your Piggy

At this point you have a working wallet. To give it a name, a face, and a voice, you buy the Upgrade. It's a one-time in-app purchase. Pricing is shown in the App Store and Google Play and varies by region. The base wallet stays free forever if you don't upgrade. The Upgrade adds naming, skins, personality, messaging, and extra deposit rails.

When you upgrade, you pick:

  • A name. This becomes your Lightning address, like oink@pig.gy, and it is permanent.
  • A skin from a set of Piggy designs.
  • A personality, which the app generates from a pool of traits.

Once you confirm, your Piggy is born. Name, skin, personality, and public profile are locked in forever. No rename, no reroll.

Step 3: Feed it

Your Piggy's Lightning address is live the moment it's born. You can send sats to it from any Lightning wallet. If you don't have any Bitcoin yet, claim 21 sats from the Piggy faucet to test the flow. Enter your Piggy's Lightning address, hit claim, and sats show up in seconds.

If you want to deposit more, you have a few options:

  • Lightning (everyone). Send from any Lightning wallet to your Piggy's @pig.gy address.
  • Onchain Bitcoin (upgraded). Send regular Bitcoin from any exchange or wallet. It arrives in your Piggy as sats.
  • Stablecoins (upgraded). Send USDC or similar stablecoins. They're converted to Bitcoin on deposit. Piggy only holds Bitcoin.

Each deposit wakes the Piggy up. It reacts based on deposit patterns, the time of day, network events, and its fixed personality traits.

Step 4: Let it live

Piggy is meant for repeated deposits over time. Public profiles let other people find your Piggy, send sats, and leave messages. Messages appear on your Piggy's public profile, moderated by an AI filter for the obvious stuff. The longer you have a Piggy, the more it behaves like the same specific creature you've been feeding.

Step 5: Think hard before withdrawing

Withdrawing sats is possible at any time. Emptying your Piggy kills it. Not pauses. Not archives. Kills. The name, the skin, the personality, the profile, the Lightning address, the message history, all retired forever. You can start a new Piggy, but it's a new Piggy. The one you had is gone.

The death mechanic is intentional. It's meant to discourage spending from the piggy bank. Piggy is not a trading wallet.

What's next

Feed your Piggy

Name it. Pick its skin. Start stacking sats. It takes 30 seconds.