Author: CJP 2018-06-27 19:56:11
Published on: 2018-06-27T19:56:11+00:00
In Lightning, sending a payment requires an invoice from the receiver. However, there may be situations where one wants to make a spontaneous payment as a gift. This can be accomplished by routing the payment to the receiver's Lightning node using a special form of routing message that includes the preimage and possibly other small data such as the hash of a signed description. If the receiver's node recognizes this format, it can use the preimage to complete or cancel the transaction. In this protocol, none of the intermediate nodes can steal funds since the routing data is encrypted. Though spontaneous payments can also be made with a "payment to self", the new protocol has advantages such as not needing the second half of the route and allowing for a small message to be included.
Updated on: 2023-05-25T01:45:45.323838+00:00