<p>I believe it is to explain the "purpose of the payment" as described in <a href="https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lightning-rfc/blob/25a9debcf3c9895b71c1d1648bb29d9ff07d9cde/11-payment-encoding.md#tagged-fields" rel="nofollow noreferrer">BOLT11</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Short description of purpose of payment (UTF-8), e.g. '1 cup of
  coffee' or 'ナンセンス 1杯'</p>
</blockquote>

<p>This would be the <strong><em>payee</em></strong> letting the <strong><em>payer</em></strong> know what they are paying for, e.g. in case there are multiple outstanding invoices, just like any normal invoice outside of LN. Like you said, it's perfectly reasonable for the payer to suggest a description, and would probably be preferred in some cases, so the payer knows the payee has agreed to the purpose of the payment and is expecting it.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-11-06T17:57:00.533Z
2018-11-06T17:57:00.533Z
JBaczuk
<p>According to Bolt 11, an invoice may contain a short description. However, what I fail to understand is who is sending this information to whom.</p>

<p>Since the invoice is usually generated by the payee, I'd argue that the <em>short description</em> is some information for the payer, like "Purchase: Product A, Product B". However, I've seen Lapps like tip boxes, where it is the payer who creates the message for the payee.</p>

<p>Or is the idea that the payee could propose a description, but the payer could then change it as he wants?</p>

<lightning-network><invoices>
Purpose of the LN transaction description
Dalit Sairio
# Purpose of the LN transaction description

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-11-06)

According to Bolt 11, an invoice may contain a short description. However, what I fail to understand is who is sending this information to whom.

Since the invoice is usually generated by the payee, I'd argue that the *short description* is some information for the payer, like "Purchase: Product A, Product B". However, I've seen Lapps like tip boxes, where it is the payer who creates the message for the payee.

Or is the idea that the payee could propose a description, but the payer could then change it as he wants?

**Tags:** lightning-network, invoices


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2018-11-06. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

I believe it is to explain the "purpose of the payment" as described in [BOLT11](https://github.com/lightningnetwork/lightning-rfc/blob/25a9debcf3c9895b71c1d1648bb29d9ff07d9cde/11-payment-encoding.md#tagged-fields):

> Short description of purpose of payment (UTF-8), e.g. '1 cup of
> coffee' or 'ナンセンス 1杯'

This would be the ***payee*** letting the ***payer*** know what they are paying for, e.g. in case there are multiple outstanding invoices, just like any normal invoice outside of LN. Like you said, it's perfectly reasonable for the payer to suggest a description, and would probably be preferred in some cases, so the payer knows the payee has agreed to the purpose of the payment and is expecting it.


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