BOLT 12

BOLT 12 defines "offers" for the Lightning Network. An offer is a small string or QR code that a payer scans to request a regular Lightning invoice from the receiver over the Lightning network itself, using onion messages. The same offer can be paid many times.

Compared to BOLT 11 invoices, offers are reusable, smaller, and do not require a side channel such as LNURL to fetch a fresh invoice per payment. They also support recurring payments and refunds.

The specification lives alongside the rest of the Lightning protocol at github.com/lightning/bolts and is implemented in Core Lightning, LDK, and Eclair.

References

• BOLT 12 specification
• bolt12.org
• LDK: BOLT 12 has arrived
• Awesome BOLT 12