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.\"     Title: lightning-invoice
.\"    Author: [see the "AUTHOR" section]
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.\"      Date: 04/06/2018
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.\"    Source: \ \&
.\"  Language: English
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.TH "LIGHTNING\-INVOICE" "7" "04/06/2018" "\ \&" "\ \&"
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.SH "NAME"
lightning-invoice \- Protocol for accepting payments\&.
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
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\fBinvoice\fR \fImsatoshi\fR \fIlabel\fR \fIdescription\fR [\fIexpiry\fR] [\fIfallbacks\fR]
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
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The \fBinvoice\fR RPC command creates the expectation of a payment of a given amount of milli\-satoshi: it returns a unique token which another lightning daemon can use to pay this invoice\&.
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The \fImsatoshi\fR can be the string "any", which creates an invoice that can be paid with any amount\&.
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The \fIlabel\fR must be a unique string or number (which is treated as a string, so "01" is different from "1"); it is never revealed to other nodes on the lightning network, but it can be used to query the status of this invoice\&.
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The \fIdescription\fR is a short description of purpose of payment, e\&.g\&. \fI1 cup of coffee\fR\&. This value is encoded into the BOLT11 invoice and is viewable by any node you send this invoice to\&. It must be UTF\-8, and cannot use \fI\eu\fR JSON escape codes\&.
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The \fIexpiry\fR is optionally the number of seconds the invoice is valid for\&. If no value is provided the default of 3600 (1 Hour) is used\&.
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The \fIfallbacks\fR array is one or more fallback addresses to include in the invoice (in order from most\-preferred to least): note that these arrays are not currently tracked to fulfill the invoice\&.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
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On success, a hash is returned as \fIpayment_hash\fR to be given to the payer, and the \fIexpiry_time\fR as a UNIX timestamp\&. It also returns a BOLT11 invoice as \fIbolt11\fR to be given to the payer\&. On failure, an error is returned and no invoice is created\&. If the lightning process fails before responding, the caller should use lightning\-listinvoice(7) to query whether this invoice was created or not\&.
.SH "AUTHOR"
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Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp\&.com\&.au> is mainly responsible\&.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
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lightning\-listinvoice(7), lightning\-delinvoice(7), lightning\-getroute(7), lightning\-sendpay(7)\&.
.SH "RESOURCES"
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Main web site: https://github\&.com/ElementsProject/lightning