It was a cloudy October morning in the seaside village of Redactedbaai¹. One of many small towns embracing the future in South Africa's garden route, the thriving community was enjoying another day of freedom despite a gray day and intermittant drizzles. In a small market overlooking the cliffs, children played chess on giant boards and African woodcarvers sold toy Toyota Hilux to pedestrians who huddled over their morning coffees as they browsed. Little did anyone know, a merciless scammer was prowling through the bucolic, foggy air.

Her plan was brilliant. Find a merchant that provided a lightning address for payment, fill out her own invoice on her own wallet, but pay 100 sats for an item priced 100 rand. Bwahaha! The evil coursing through her veins was masked by her cold, stone-faced expression...and her ability to flip around her phone quickly while that weird green confirmation thing happened.

This is a true story. I mean...kind of. My wife sits down to lunch, and notices that one of her purchases from earlier in the day was for 100 sats². She can tell from the lightning address that it was to a merchant that charged her R100, which right now should be something like 5000 sats. The upside is, she was able to send the difference to the lightning address that was documented in her wallet for that sale. The downside is... someone is going to make that mistake again. It's inevitable. Further still, beneath the downside lies the fact that someone can easily intentionally exploit this vulnerability. Let me count the ways:

Also, remember that these were battle hardened bitcoiners in what is currently the number one bitcoin country on the planet who got scammed by my wife...accidentally. Your newly-bitcoin-accepting friends in Austin or Nashville or other places where you can't even buy a loaf of bread with bitcoin don't stand a chance.

Moments before this, I had been sent to the bar at the market as none of the food places had drinks. Given the hour, and the fact that none of the food vendors had beverages, I didn't expect to get razzed for teetotlery... Nevertheless, they jeered and bellowed at my request for a soda. I actually think they get these requests all morning and enjoy the little ritual of flogging sober morning customers.

Anyway, the next part is what mattered. He whipped out his device, created an invoice for R20 and stuck it in my face. Boom. I could show him a live feed on mempool.space of a transaction being confirmed onchain from my address to his for millions of sats, but until that lightning invoice was paid and confirmed, I'd be washing dishes.

Ok ok, if you're following me on sn, I did a big write up on Friday about how to make a QR code for people to accept tips. I also showed one that I made for a merchant. My point here is that just sharing a lightning address is not the ideal solution for a merchant, and we should always be pushing for better. However, I would still argue that a merchant who can take bitcoin in an unideal way is going to be, on total, better off than a merchant that can't take bitcoin at all.

Furthermore, I would argue that the lightning address in QR form is the ideal solution for someone accepting tips. It's quick, it's dirty, it's fun. It is also ideal for donations...or "honor boxes." Right down the street from this incident, at another market, I went to a book stall with an "honor box." Boy howdy! Honor QR code sounds like a way better idea to me than an honor box.

For one, I didn't have cash! I would have got a lot of books and actually ended up pulling my son out of there crying because I told him we'd get a book, but there was no one there to pay. Also, with the honor box, you have to trust everyone in the universe to be honorable, whereas with the honor QR code, you only have to trust the people that want the specific products you are selling to be honorable.

If you're needing a fixed amount for a product or service though, a fixed invoice is ideal, confirmed on your device, while chiding me for not day-drinking. Otherwise, my wife is going to scam the shit out of you!