The following is a direct excerpt from Marty’s crooked problem # 1181: “BIP21 is very easy.“” Sign up for our newsletter here..
At this time, there are major UX hurdles for users of various Bitcoin wallet software providers.
One of the brighter talks at the Bitcoin Takeover event at Bitcoin Commons in Austin last Friday was between Lisa Neigut (c-lightning, Blockstream), Rockstar Dev (using Strike, lnd) and Miles. It was a panel discussion. Suter (Cash App with LDK), led by Matt Odell, on various implementations and interoperability challenges between UX when using Lightning Network. During the discussion (coming soon), the panel turned to the topic of BIP21. This is a BIP I wasn’t aware of, but I’m very excited after understanding it.
At this time, there are major UX hurdles for users of various Bitcoin wallet software providers. UX for sending and receiving Bitcoin transactions on the chain and over the Lightning Network. Some wallets are on-chain only, some are lighting only, and some make both available to the user, but you need to manually shuffle the two when sending and receiving. Please enter BIP21. It aims to fix this UX hurdle by providing the user with options when sending. BIP21 enables a QR code that allows wallet providers to include both lightning invoices and on-chain Bitcoin wallet addresses in one place.
All that is required to move BIP21 forward as a standard is for more Lightning Network wallets to begin supporting BIP21. Bitcoin users currently using a wallet with BIP21 enabled can confuse and lead to UX friction when scanning the QR code of a wallet without BIP21 enabled. Will be received. This UX friction will be put to an end by allowing more Lightning Network wallets to enable BIP21 and provide fallback on-chain addresses to users who are sending transactions only on-chain. The best part is that BIP21 is backward compatible. Therefore, there is no way to wake up after 10 years and deprive a comatose man of the right to broadcast a transaction from a wallet that hasn’t been touched for many years.
In addition to this, BIP21 allows users to consciously decide whether to send over the protocol layer or the Lightning Network. When implemented, this eliminates the need for different on-chain and LN UI tabs and makes the transaction process between different wallets much smoother.
The first step in realizing these benefits is to enable each wallet to read the BIP21QR code. From there, each project can start creating an experience that allows users to generate a BIP21 payment code. Before we can broadly support the generation of these payment codes, we need to broadly support scanning. We hope that wallet providers will prioritize this in the near future.
..
