Bitcoin Payment URI Schemes

BIP21 — Base format

bitcoin:<address>?<params>

Parameters (all optional):

amount= — in BTC (yes, not sats).
label= — recipient name.
message= — note for the payer.
r= — BIP70 payment request URL (deprecated).

Examples:

bitcoin:bc1qxy2kgdygjrsqtzq2n0yrf2493p83kkfjhx0wlh
bitcoin:bc1qxy2...?amount=0.001&label=Coffee%20Shop
bitcoin:bc1qxy2...?amount=0.0005&message=Order%20%23123

Unknown params with req- prefix MUST cause the parser to reject the URI (forward-compat hard requirement). Other unknown params can be ignored.

BIP70 / BIP72 (legacy, deprecated)

r=https://example.com/pay/123 pointed to a server-served payment request with X.509 cert. Discontinued in modern wallets due to:

TLS cert chain trust issues.
Centralization (server must be online).
Phishing surface.

Bitcoin Core removed BIP70 in 2021.

PayJoin URI (BIP78)

Extends BIP21:

bitcoin:bc1q...?amount=0.001&pj=https://payjoin.example.com/endpoint

pj= is the PayJoin endpoint. Wallet sees this and offers a PayJoin flow: instead of sending a normal tx, the wallet posts the unsigned tx to the endpoint, which adds receiver inputs/outputs and returns a modified PSBT to sign.

PayJoin v2 (async):

&pjos=0&pjes=...    # additional params for v2 relay handshake

Lightning URIs

Lightning has its own URI:

lightning:lnbc100u1p...   (BOLT11 invoice)
lightning:lnbc1...        (BOLT12 offer; same prefix, different format)
lightning:lnurl...        (LNURL-bech32)

LNURL itself uses bech32 encoding for the underlying URL:

LNURL1DP68GURN8GHJ7MR... → https://example.com/lnurl/pay/123

Wallets recognize either prefix.

Unified URIs (BOLT12 + on-chain)

Modern wallets support combined URIs:

bitcoin:bc1q...?amount=0.001&lightning=lnbc100u1p...

The wallet picks based on availability:

Lightning if recipient has a usable invoice and sender has LN.
On-chain otherwise.

Some wallets default to Lightning if both work.

Lightning Address (LN-Addr spec)

Email-style address:

user@domain.com

Resolution:

GET https://domain.com/.well-known/lnurlp/user
→ returns LNURL-pay metadata
→ wallet asks for amount → POST /callback → receives invoice

Render in QR as lightning:lnurl1... (the LNURL-pay encoded URL).

QR encoding

Bitcoin URIs in QR codes use UPPER CASE for higher density (alphanumeric mode) when possible. Bech32 is already uppercase-friendly. URL params preserve case (URL-encoded).

Example: BITCOIN:BC1QXY2...?AMOUNT=0.001 is denser than mixed-case. But mixed-case URIs are still valid; both should be accepted.

Implementations

bitcoinjs-lib: bitcoin-uri package.
python-bitcoinlib: bitcoin.bip21.
BDK: bdk::Address::parse_url().
Most wallets accept both bare addresses and full URIs.

Common bugs

Treating amount= as sats (it's BTC, decimal). Off-by-1e8 errors are common.
URL-decoding message= on receipt without sanitization → XSS in wallet UI.
Failing to reject unknown req- params → security hole if a future spec adds a req-must-not-pay-to-this-address param.
Generating QR with mixed-case bech32 → some scanners reject (Bech32 spec mandates all-lower or all-upper).
Missing lightning: prefix on LN URIs → wallet doesn't recognize.

bitcoin-uri-schemes