<blockquote>
<p>Using BOLT 12 offer encodes the data necessary to reach a node to request an invoice to make a payment, either a node_id, or a blinded path (the last few hops in an onion route, pre-computed and encrypted) to that node using onion messages.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>See here: <a href="https://thebitcoinmanual.com/articles/lightning-offers-bolt12/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://thebitcoinmanual.com/articles/lightning-offers-bolt12/</a></p>
<p>I guess the answer is that you have those two options and you only get the privacy advantage if the blinded path feature is used.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-11-25T16:45:12.910Z
2022-11-25T16:45:43.300Z
2022-11-25T16:45:43.300Z
Julian Kranz
<p>In many cases, you're a public node and want to commit to the invoice publicly.  The difference is, now a node doesn't <em>have to</em>!</p>
<p>In Core Lightning, our implementation doesn't yet support this use of aliases, but it's pretty trivial. If course we can pay someone using an alias...</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-11-29T10:02:03.060Z
Paying someone using an alias... like? Are blinded paths used in this process?
Angelo
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-11-28T23:16:14.433Z
2022-11-28T23:16:14.433Z
Rusty Russell
<p>It is said that a BOLT12 offer does hide the final destination, and therefore protects privacy of receiver.</p>
<p>However, I just generated an offer, decoded it, and in the value node_id, it had my node's public key without the first byte prefix, which is sufficient to have myself traced. Is there something that I haven't understood correctly?</p>

<lightning-network><bolt12-offers>
Can you know the final destination of a BOLT12 offer?
Angelo
# Can you know the final destination of a BOLT12 offer?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-11-22)

It is said that a BOLT12 offer does hide the final destination, and therefore protects privacy of receiver.

However, I just generated an offer, decoded it, and in the value node\_id, it had my node's public key without the first byte prefix, which is sufficient to have myself traced. Is there something that I haven't understood correctly?

**Tags:** lightning-network, bolt12-offers


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2022-11-25. Score: 1

> Using BOLT 12 offer encodes the data necessary to reach a node to request an invoice to make a payment, either a node\_id, or a blinded path (the last few hops in an onion route, pre-computed and encrypted) to that node using onion messages.

See here: <https://thebitcoinmanual.com/articles/lightning-offers-bolt12/>

I guess the answer is that you have those two options and you only get the privacy advantage if the blinded path feature is used.


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### Answer by username_2 on 2022-11-28. Score: 0

In many cases, you're a public node and want to commit to the invoice publicly. The difference is, now a node doesn't *have to*!

In Core Lightning, our implementation doesn't yet support this use of aliases, but it's pretty trivial. If course we can pay someone using an alias...

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Paying someone using an alias... like? Are blinded paths used in this process?  

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