Key Send

Keysend is a Lightning Network payment method that lets a sender push funds to a node's public key without requesting an invoice first. Standard Lightning payments require the recipient to generate an invoice containing a secret that proves delivery; keysend inverts the flow by having the sender include the secret inside the encrypted payment itself, so any reachable node can be paid spontaneously.

Why it matters

Invoices assume a conversation: the recipient must be online, generate a request, and hand it over before money moves. Keysend removes that handshake, enabling genuinely spontaneous payments, tips to a podcast host mid-episode, streaming micropayments that flow by the minute, or donations to a node identified only by its public key. The podcasting 2.0 ecosystem built its value-for-value model on exactly this capability, streaming satoshis to hosts as listeners play episodes.

The convenience has a cost in proof. With an invoice, the delivered secret is a receipt the sender can hold against the recipient. In keysend the sender wrote the secret, so there is no cryptographic evidence the recipient ever agreed to anything, which makes it unsuitable for commerce where disputes are possible. Later protocol work on offers and reusable payment codes aims to combine spontaneity with proper receipts.

In the gold vs bitcoin debate

Keysend has no gold analogue and does not pretend to. It exists at a layer of programmability where money behaves like packets, flowing continuously in amounts smaller than any coin could be struck. Whatever weight one gives gold's advantages, payments streamed by the second illustrate the design space that only digital money occupies.