NIP-47 defines Nostr Wallet Connect, a protocol for letting a Nostr app talk to a remote Lightning wallet service without exposing the wallet’s main credentials to every client.

How It Works

A wallet service publishes a replaceable kind 13194 info event describing the methods and encryption modes it supports. A client connects using a nostr+walletconnect:// URI that contains the wallet service pubkey, one or more relays, and a dedicated secret for that connection. Requests are sent as kind 23194 events and responses come back as kind 23195 events.

Commands and Notifications

Common methods include pay_invoice, pay_keysend, make_invoice, lookup_invoice, list_transactions, get_balance, and get_info. Wallet services can also push notifications such as payment_received, payment_sent, and hold_invoice_accepted.

The spec originally grew several optional methods over time, but recent cleanup removed the multi_ payment methods. In practice, interoperability is better when clients stick to the commands advertised by the wallet’s info event instead of assuming a broad method set.

Use Cases

  • Zapping - Send sats to posts, profiles, or content creators
  • Payments - Pay Lightning invoices from any Nostr app
  • Wallet UX separation - Use one wallet service across many Nostr clients

Security and Interop Notes

The connection URI contains a dedicated secret that the client uses for signing and encryption. That gives each app its own wallet identity, which helps both revocation and privacy. A wallet can cap spending, disable methods, or revoke one connection without affecting another.

NIP-44 is now the preferred encryption mode. The spec still documents NIP-04 fallback for older implementations, so clients need to inspect the wallet’s advertised encryption tag instead of assuming every wallet has migrated.

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