diff --git a/helpers.go b/helpers.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c36f59c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helpers.go
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"encoding/hex"
+	"fmt"
+
+	log "github.com/sirupsen/logrus"
+)
+
+func trimPubKey(pubkey []byte) string {
+	return fmt.Sprintf("%s...%s", hex.EncodeToString(pubkey)[:6], hex.EncodeToString(pubkey)[len(hex.EncodeToString(pubkey))-6:])
+}
+
+func welcome() {
+	log.Info("---- ⚡️ electronwall 0.3 ⚡️ ----")
+}
+
+// setLogger will initialize the log format
+func setLogger(debug bool) {
+	if debug {
+		log.SetLevel(log.DebugLevel)
+	} else {
+		log.SetLevel(log.InfoLevel)
+	}
+	customFormatter := new(log.TextFormatter)
+	customFormatter.TimestampFormat = "2006-01-02 15:04:05"
+	customFormatter.FullTimestamp = true
+	log.SetFormatter(customFormatter)
+}