Author: René Pickhardt 2018-11-16 07:47:15
Published on: 2018-11-16T07:47:15+00:00
The email is addressed to Rusty and the sender expresses confusion about a proposal. They are unable to find the term "lightning probe message" in the current BOLTs and therefore can't understand the proposal. The proposal suggests a method of having reusable BOLT11 "offers" which provide almost-spontaneous payments as well as not requiring generating a BOLT11 invoice for each potential sale. The payer would use a new lightning probe message using the current onion format we use for HTLCs to retrieve the complete invoice. An "offer" has a `p` field of 26 bytes (128 bits assuming top two are 0) and the final-hop lightning onion would contain: [whatever-marker-we-need?][128-bit-`p`-field][[type,len,data]+]. The return lightning message would contain a new bolt11 invoice and an additional field: `m` (27) `data_length` 52. The payer checks the signature is correct, `m` is correct, and uses the invoice to pay as normal. The format of the proposal is handwaved a bit over the detailed format. The proposal provides a platform for recurring payments and static invoicing, and a single static invoice without an amount field can be used to approximate "spontaneous" donations while still providing proof of payment.
Updated on: 2023-05-25T17:00:37.317550+00:00