Key Send

Key Send is a proposed feature for the Lightning Network which would allow payers to pay receivers over the Lightning Network, without needing an invoice from the receiver. Instead of sending an invoice each time a payer wishes to send bitcoin to a receiver, the receiver could share their node ID (a public key) once, allowing the payer to pay any amount at any time in the future without further interaction.

Key Send would greatly improve the usability of Lightning by eliminating several steps in the payment flow. Currently, in order to receive a payment, a user must send their counterparty an invoice, requesting a specific amount of bitcoin to be sent to them. This is inconvenient for several reasons, including bandwidth and the several interactions between payer and receiver needed to execute a payment.