Introducing BTCPay Server 1.0.4.0

Today we are thrilled to introduce the new BTCPay Server - v1.0.4.0 (opens new window). This version is one of our biggest releases to date and comes packed with brand new features, massive privacy gains, design enhancements and various other improvements and fixes.

# What's new?

# 🕵️‍♂️ Payjoin (P2EP) Support

The highlight of the release is without a doubt Payjoin(P2EP) support, which was generously sponsored by Blockstream (opens new window) and was first described by them in this blog post (opens new window).

Payjoin (also called P2EP) is a form of coinjoin that allows 2 parties to mix their UTXOs while a payment is being done. Unlike other coinjoin mixing methods, a payjoin transaction does not leave an obvious fingerprint and looks like an ordinary bitcoin transaction.

Wallets supporting payjoin can detect when a bitcoin payment link (BIP21) has payjoin support. They create a transaction paying the invoice and instead of broadcasting over the Bitcoin network, they connect to the BTCPay Server store and collaborate to enhance the transaction in a way that breaks essential blockchain analysis heuristics.

Payjoin is a win-win as it provides greater privacy for both parties:

Sender - It can't be assumed that all the inputs in a transaction belong to the same entity
Receiver (merchant) - the UTXO set of the receiver does not grow with payjoin and blurs the link between sender and receiver for blockchain analysis software

Support in BTCPay Server has been added on both the invoicing and the wallet side. This means that you can enable Payjoin in the store, but you can also use BTCPay's internal wallet (opens new window) to pay Payjoin enabled invoices.

BTCPay Server uses a modified and expanded version of BIP79 Bustapay. If you're interested in learning how it works and want to add support to a specific wallet, read our specification here (opens new window).

To learn how to enable Payjoin in your BTCPay Server or make a payment from the wallet, check the Payjoin User Guide (opens new window).

To enable Payjoin as a merchant, a hot wallet (opens new window) is required. Please use it with care and do not store large amounts. The risk can be mitigated with our BTC-Transmuter (opens new window) plugin.

# 🌚 New Theme & Dark mode

Another focus of this release was to standardize the BTCPay Server design. We created new styling guidelines (opens new window) and started applying them across all of our platforms.

You'll notice that the new default theme is much cleaner with a fresh new color-scheme.

Turn the lights off! The long-awaited dark theme is finally here!

Light Invoices page

Dark Invoices page

Design consistency was just the first step towards better user-experience. We plan to introduce a detailed dashboard, better navigation and an easier experience gradually.

Romantics who prefer the old-school look can access the legacy theme from Server Settings > Theme.

# 🧾 Re-designed Invoices

The checkout experience is crucial. It can be the difference between an abandoned cart and a successful sale. That's why we re-designed the invoice.

Since many of you use a customized theme, we were very careful not to make any breaking changes. Therefore, all of the customized invoice themes should continue to work.

Dark mode is also available for invoices from Store Settings > Checkout Experience.

New default light invoice

New dark mode invoice

# 📷 New Wallet Features

Our internal wallet is one of the most private and secure wallets available. It's a full-node reliant wallet with a direct hardware wallet integration (opens new window) that can run over Tor.

Several important features have been added to the wallet:

Coin selection
QR Code camera scanning
Allows generation of a new address in the Wallet Receive page

# Coin Selection

The new coin-selection feature can be found under Advanced Settings and allows you to expertly craft a transaction, using only coins that are desirable for your privacy in this payment situation. For example, paying with coins that are fresh from a coinjoin mix.

To make the selection easier, coin-selection works natively with the wallet labels feature. This means you can label any incoming funds for smoother UTXO management and spending. In the future we'll be adding auto-labelling on incoming coins based on invoices and whether it was a payjoin transaction.

Coin Selection

# QR Code camera scanning

The new scan option (camera icon) lets you use your device's camera to scan an invoice when sending from the wallet. It auto-populates the invoice information so you don't have to manually copy-paste address and amount. More importantly the scan feature opens a door to new use-cases, especially for the BTCPay cross-platform app that we plan to launch in the future.

# 👨‍💻 API improvements

Our mission is to enable the creation of a powerful and flexible ecosystem that enables developers to build using BTCPay Server.

Therefore, we've spent quite a lot of time behind the scenes working on the new API, which we call the Greenfield API. It's still early days but we believe our efforts are starting to bear fruit.

Here are some of the new API features added in v1.0.4.0:

Greenfield API permissions rework, to create API keys with very specific permissions
Greenfield API C# Client
Client Get/Create User API for Greenfield API

If you're a developer with a specific use-case, we'd like to invite you to join the discussion on GitHub (opens new window) and help us craft new features for the new API. Our legacy (BitPay-compatible API) will still be there, do not worry! In the meantime, we have APIs for managing stores and Payment Requests (opens new window) in the works.

# 🐛 Bug fixes and improvements

Better RBF and double spend handling
Fix: Decimal precision for Liquid assets in BIP21
Fix: do not allow 0 amount invoices in crowdfund or payment requests
Fix: Make 0 amount invoices marked as paid instantly
Bitflyer rate provider support
Fix Payment request clone button
Rename summary for invoices
Add L-CAD support

The full changelog is available here (opens new window).

# How to update?

To update (opens new window) to the latest version, go to your BTCPay Server > Server Settings > Maintenance > Update. If you prefer CLI, you can update with btcpay-update.sh.

# 🏪 New website & merchant directory

New guidelines meant that we had to give our website (opens new window) a new look. We stripped the complexity of an earlier design and invested quite a bit of time in figuring out what content to display.

Due to software versatility, it was important to feature essential pieces of information that would be relevant for the majority of website visitors but without overwhelming them.

Our directory (opens new window) displays stores, charities and projects that use BTCPay Server. It helps smaller merchants with marketing. Our earlier directory was powered by WordPress which limited us in open-sourcing it.

BTCPay Server Directory is re-designed from the grounds up. It's light-weight and entirely open-source so that anyone can help us with moderation and code improvements.

As a self-hosted software, we have no way nor any intention to track people who use the software. Directory features are entries that people submitted themselves or posted publicly. It works on a voluntary basis. If you're using BTCPay Server and would like to be featured, feel free to submit an entry.

Both the main website (opens new window) and directory (opens new window) are open-source and can be found on GitHub. If you have the skills, feel free to join us in improving them further.

# 🗺️ Translators needed

BTCPay Server main website has been translated into 32 languages. We're grateful to all our contributors around the internet. Your efforts help us in making a borderless, open-financial future for everyone, a reality.

Changes on the main website, mean that there are new strings for translation and old ones that need to be reviewed. That's why we'd like to invite anyone interested into helping us with translation (opens new window), by joining us on Transifex (opens new window).

# Thank you to our contributors

This release is special. Many of the individuals that participated in this release are first-time contributors to the project which makes us very proud. Furthermore, this is the first version that was strictly coordinated with actual milestones and a plan. We're growing, and as a result, we need to improve our structure to cater the influx of new contributors.

Huge thanks to all of you who've helped in making the v1.0.4.0. We appreciate every single contribution and support.

We hope you'll have as much fun with the new BTCPay Server as we had developing it! As always, if you face any issues or notice a bug, please join our community chat (opens new window) and let us know.

Stay healthy! Here's to the next release! 🍻