Payment Protocol

With the release of Bitcoin Core 0.9, the Payment Protocol (or BIP70) has become available to the general audience. This protocol has already been integrated into the Bitcoin Wallet by Andreas Schildbach on Android and also the Trezor is fully supported.

There are a couple of huge advantages to the Payment Protocol. The hassle with bitcoin addresses is no longer an issue because we will directly communicate through the so-called PK-scrips (the wallet does this automatically). This means that we can apply the hidden possibilities of Bitcoin (multi signature for example) far more easily. The payment options are also more extensive, it is now possible to communicate with the person transferring the bitcoins and ask him to split up the payment to different people.

The wallet connects with the payment server and when the command is given to send the bitcoins, the signed transaction can be immediately forwarded to the payment server. This means that payments are received even faster. After making the payment, the wallet can also indicate what address the bitcoins can be returned to, should something go wrong.

The so-called payment requests are signed by means of a certificate, so the payer immediately sees which company is being paid. This not only makes the payment process safer, but also clearer.

We consider this an important next step in Bitcoin!

The payment protocol has been used in Bitonic products for some time, see some examples below: