Home
News
One of the more illuminating talks at the Bitcoin Takeover event held at the Bitcoin Commons in Austin last Friday was a panel discussion moderated by Matt Odell about issues of connectivity between Lisa Neigut (c-lightning, Blockstream), Rockstar Dev (Strike, which uses lnd), and Miles Suter (Cash App, which uses LDK) and overall UX when using the Lightning Network.
The panel got to the issue of BIP21 throughout the discussion (which should be made public shortly), a BIP that I was unaware of but am really enthusiastic about now that I understand it.
What’s the solution?
There is now a significant user experience barrier for customers of various bitcoin wallet software vendors.
On-chain and using the Lightning Network’s user interface, you can send and receive bitcoin transactions. Some wallets solely support on-chain transactions, while others support both but require you to manually shuffle between the two when sending and receiving.
BIP21 tries to address this UX issue by allowing users to choose whether or not to send. BIP21 would allow wallet providers to include a lightning invoice as well as an on-chain bitcoin wallet address in the same QR code.
What can be done to advance BIP21
More lightning network wallets should start supporting it. When a bitcoin user with a BIP21 enabled wallet scans a QR code from a wallet that does not support BIP21, they receive an error code that might be confusing and cause UX friction.
The best part is that BIP21 is backward compatible, so it won’t disenfranchise the man in the coma who wakes up a decade later and broadcasts a message.
This UX friction might be eliminated if more lightning network wallets enabled BIP21 and provided a fallback on-chain address to users who are only sending transactions on-chain.
Making each wallet capable of reading BIP21 QR codes is the first step toward reaping these benefits.
Let’s hope that wallet providers prioritize this in the near future.
Each project can then start developing experiences that allow users to generate BIP21 payment codes. Before you can gain widespread scanning support, you need to get widespread support for creating these payment codes.
ALSO READ: Crypto could be a farce as per the Central Bank of Ireland
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
