Request a Blocknet payment with a link

A Blocknet payment link puts everything a payer needs into one line: who to pay, how much BNT, and an optional memo such as an invoice number. Send it in a chat, put it on an invoice or in your profile, and the payer pastes it into their wallet and confirms. This guide shows the two link formats, how to write one with your address or your $name, and exactly what the wallet does when someone pastes it.

What is a Blocknet payment link?

The Blocknet command-line wallet accepts two forms:

blocknet://<address-or-$name>?amount=<BNT>&memo=<text>
bntpay.com/<address-or-$name>?amount=<BNT>&memo=<text>

Both forms carry the same fields:

The wallet is relaxed about how the link is typed. It recognizes blocknet:// and the shorter blocknet:, and for the web form it takes bntpay.com/ on its own or with www., http:// or https:// in front. The prefix is case-insensitive, and the order of amount and memo doesn’t matter.

The bntpay.com form is a normal web address, so most chat apps, email clients and social profiles turn it into a link people can tap. The blocknet:// form is the Blocknet URI, handy wherever a link goes straight into a wallet.

How do you write a payment link?

You can write a link by hand in four steps.

1. Pick the recipient. Run address in the command-line wallet to print your address, or use your Blocknet ID shortname with the $ prefix. If you don’t have a wallet yet, the Blocknet wallet guide shows how to create one and find your address.
2. Set the amount. Write it in BNT. Whole numbers and decimals both work, down to eight decimal places, because one BNT is 100,000,000 atomic units.
3. Add a memo if you want one. An order number, an invoice ID or a short thank-you helps you match the payment when it arrives. Keep it to 124 bytes.
4. Join the parts. Put the recipient after the prefix, then ?amount=, then &memo= if you have one.

An invoice for 25 BNT to a name, in both forms:

https://bntpay.com/$yourname?amount=25&memo=invoice-42
blocknet://$yourname?amount=25&memo=invoice-42

The same request to a full address:

bntpay.com/<address>?amount=25&memo=invoice-42

Encoding characters in the memo

A memo with spaces or punctuation needs a few characters written in URL encoding, because the link itself uses them. The wallet decodes them back before it builds the payment.

For example, memo=Order%20%231042 arrives as Order #1042. Letters, digits, hyphens, underscores and dots need no encoding, which is why memos like invoice-42 are easy to use as they are.

Should a link use your address or your $name?

Both work, and each suits a different job.

A name keeps the link short enough to read, say aloud or fit in a bio. Write it with the $ prefix in links: $yourname and @yourname are the same name, and $ is the form both link types carry straight through to the wallet. When a payer pastes a link with a name, the wallet resolves the name through blocknet.id, checks the Ed25519 signature on the record, and prints the full address marked as verified. Because the name is resolved at payment time, a long-lived link such as a tip link in your profile keeps working if you later point your name at a new wallet.

A full address fixes the destination in the link itself. That suits a one-off invoice where you want the link to name one exact wallet.

Either way, the payment on chain is an ordinary Blocknet transaction to a one-time stealth address, with the same privacy as any other payment.

What happens when someone pastes a payment link?

Here is the sequence in the command-line wallet, step by step.

1. The payer pastes the link at the wallet prompt. The wallet sees the blocknet: or bntpay.com/ prefix and treats the line as a send. A link to $yourname for 25 BNT with the memo invoice-42 becomes the same request as typing send $yourname 25 invoice-42.
2. The name is resolved. For a link with a name, the wallet prints Resolved $yourname -> <address> with a verified mark.
3. The wallet checks the balance and builds the payment. It selects coins, builds the private transaction and works out the fee.
4. The payer sees a summary. It lists the amount and recipient, the fee, the full address when a name was used, any change, and the memo, followed by Confirm [y/N].
5. The payer confirms. Typing y submits the transaction and prints its ID with an explorer link at explorer.blocknetcrypto.com. Any other answer prints Cancelled and releases the coins the wallet had set aside.

The summary is the payer’s chance to check the request, so nothing leaves their wallet until they have seen it. Every link needs an amount: without one, the wallet replies payment link missing amount and stops before building anything.

The memo you put in the link travels with the payment as Blocknet’s encrypted memo. When the BNT arrives, your wallet’s history command lists it under the incoming payment, so you can match it to the invoice or order.

Test your link before you share it

You can see exactly what a payer will see by pasting your own link into your wallet. If your wallet holds at least the requested amount, it shows the full summary. Check the recipient, amount and memo, then answer n and nothing is sent.

Where payment links work well

• Invoices. Put a link with the invoice number as the memo at the bottom of the invoice or in the email. The payer pastes one line and the memo tells you which invoice was paid.
• Shops and order pages. Generate a link per order with the order number in the memo, so each payment arrives already labeled.
• Tips and donations. A link to $yourname with a suggested amount fits in a profile, a README or a stream overlay.
• Splitting a bill. Drop a link with each person’s share and a note like dinner%20friday into a group chat.

If you earn BNT by mining as well, you can use the same name for that. Both seine and bntpool.com accept a Blocknet ID shortname as your payout address, so mining payouts and link payments arrive in one wallet. The guide to mining Blocknet covers the setup.