There have been incredible developments to improve the user experience and usability of the lightning network over recent years. One of the major breakthroughs is called LNURL, which Bottlepay now supports. 🎉
What's the difference between LNURL and other lightning invoices?
Traditional lightning invoices have to be created on request and can only be used once, which isn't always convenient. On-chain addresses are static and in theory, can be used an unlimited amount of times.
Pro tip: 🏌️It isn't considered best practice to share or reuse on-chain addresses for privacy reasons. On-chain transactions are also typically slower and more expensive than lightning transactions.
LNURL combines both the convenience of static on-chain addresses while benefiting from instant and cheap lightning payments.
Inbound
Each Bottlepay user now has a reusable lightning QR code that is static and can be reused or shared to receive instant payments over the lightning network. You can share it online or in person to receive tips or payments instead of creating ad-hoc lightning invoices.
❗ Please note, the external wallet must also support LNURL-pay.
Outbound
In addition to receiving payments via LNURL, we also support outbound payments too! Simply scan any static LNURL QR code using the normal outbound payment flow by tapping 'Send' from the home screen. 🚀