Description
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
LND currently does not properly support P2TR (Taproot) fallback addresses in BOLT-11 invoices. Additionally, there's ambiguity in how multiple fallback addresses within a single invoice should be handled. As identified in discussion with Laolu, the BOLT-11 specification lacks test vectors for both P2TR fallback addresses and scenarios with multiple fallback addresses, leaving implementations without clear guidance.
Describe the solution you'd like
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Add support for P2TR fallback addresses in LND's BOLT-11 invoice parsing
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Implement well-defined behavior for handling multiple fallback addresses in a single invoice (either consistently discard subsequent addresses or replace earlier ones)
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Coordinate with the Lightning specification team to:
- Update the BOLT-11 spec to explicitly define how implementations should handle multiple fallback addresses
- Add test vectors for both P2TR fallback addresses and multiple fallback address scenarios
Describe alternatives you've considered
Continuing with the current implementation would mean:
- Users with P2TR fallback addresses would have compatibility issues
- Inconsistent behavior across Lightning implementations when handling multiple fallback addresses
- Although fallback addresses are rarely used in practice, leaving this unaddressed creates technical debt and potential interoperability issues as Taproot adoption increases
Additional context
During differential fuzzing testing between LND and LDK (using lightningfuzz, soon to be merged into bitcoinfuzz), I discovered inconsistent behavior when parsing BOLT-11 invoices containing certain fallback addresses.
Technical Details
- LDK validates SegWit programs for versions 0-16, checking length constraints (2-40 bytes) and rejecting invalid ones with the error: fallback SegWit program is too long or too short.
- LND only processes version 0 SegWit programs (checking for exactly 20 or 32 bytes) and silently ignores versions 1-16, including Taproot (v1) addresses. Furthermore, once it finds a single valid fallback address, it begins ignoring all other fallback address tagged fields without validating them.
Laolu has noted that while fallback addresses are rarely used in practice and most implementations don't use them for payment comple 5D6B tion, this remains an underspecified feature of BOLT-11 that should be properly addressed for completeness and future compatibility. This issue has already been flagged for discussion in upcoming Lightning specification meetings.
The BOLT-11 specification can be found here: https://github.com/lightning/bolts/blob/master/11-payment-encoding.md#examples