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To pay for coffee with Bitcoin, use a wallet that can send Lightning payments, load it with bitcoin before you reach the counter, and pay the café’s Lightning invoice by scanning its QR code or—where supported—tapping your phone. Check the amount, merchant description, destination and expiry before you confirm, then keep the wallet receipt until the register shows the payment.

What you need before ordering

A successful Lightning coffee payment depends on four things being ready at the same time:

  • A Lightning-enabled wallet: The wallet must be able to send payments over the Lightning Network, not only receive on-chain Bitcoin.
  • A bitcoin balance: Fund the wallet before you join the queue. A wallet with no spendable balance cannot settle the café’s invoice.
  • A café checkout that presents Lightning: Ask whether the café accepts Bitcoin or specifically Lightning. Acceptance varies by merchant and geography.
  • A working phone connection and charged phone: Your wallet has to receive the invoice and route the payment while you are at the register.

Do not assume that a Bitcoin logo means the café accepts Lightning. Ask before ordering so you can use another payment method if the register cannot create a Lightning request.

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Choose the payment route the café supports

Most café checkouts use a one-time invoice displayed as a QR code. Some compatible registers can also accept an NFC tap. A static Lightning Address or LNURL-Pay identifier is a different kind of payment request and is more common as a reusable contact than as the final amount-specific request generated by a point-of-sale system.

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Route What you do Documented support and limits
Invoice QR code Scan the café’s QR code in your Lightning wallet, review the request, and tap Pay or Send. The broadest documented checkout pattern. The QR normally contains a single-use, amount-specific Lightning invoice.
NFC tap Hold the phone near the compatible reader after choosing Lightning in the wallet. Square documents this for a second-generation Square Register with a Lightning-enabled wallet. It is unavailable on Square Terminal, Square Stand and mobile devices.
Lightning Address or LNURL-Pay Enter or scan the reusable identifier; the wallet fetches a fresh invoice. These identifiers can provide a new invoice, but a café POS normally generates its own invoice for the exact order amount.

Paying by QR code: the complete counter procedure

1. Confirm that Lightning is available

Tell the cashier you want to pay with Bitcoin over Lightning. On supported Square Register checkouts, the seller selects Bitcoin or you select it on the customer-facing display. The register then creates and displays a Lightning QR code. Other point-of-sale systems use different labels, so look for Bitcoin, Lightning or a similar payment option.

2. Open the send or scan function in your wallet

Open the wallet before the cashier finishes the order and choose its scan, Send or Pay action. Keep the wallet on its Lightning payment screen rather than an on-chain receive screen; an on-chain address and a Lightning invoice are not interchangeable.

3. Scan the entire QR code

Point the phone camera at the code until the wallet recognizes it. The full code must be visible. If recognition fails, turn up the register’s screen brightness, zoom out so all of the code is inside the camera frame, and try again. Gillespie Coffee says its Strike checkout displays both a QR code and the invoice string, so copying the text is a useful fallback when the camera cannot read the image.

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4. Use invoice text when scanning is impractical

Ask the cashier to show or copy the invoice string if the QR remains unreadable. In the wallet, choose the paste or enter-invoice option and insert the complete string. Do not type a shortened fragment; a missing character can make the request invalid or send you to an unintended destination.

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5. Check the payment request before approving it

A Lightning invoice is a payment request containing the destination, amount and expiry. The wallet may also show a merchant description and a payment hash. Compare the displayed amount with the coffee order and read the description before pressing Pay. LND’s documented payment flow likewise checks the destination, amount, payment hash and expiry before sending.

An invoice that asks for a different amount than the receipt is not a harmless formatting difference. Stop and ask the cashier to cancel and generate the correct request.

6. Tap Pay or Send

After reviewing the request, authorize the payment in the wallet. The wallet attempts to route the payment through Lightning. When the route succeeds, the recipient can verify settlement using the invoice’s payment hash and cryptographic preimage.

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7. Wait for the register to update

Leave the payment screen open until the wallet reports success and the café’s register confirms the sale. Square documents confirmation on both the buyer and seller displays after a Lightning payment.

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8. Keep the wallet receipt

Do not close the wallet’s confirmation immediately. Keep the payment record until the order is handed over and the cashier confirms that the point-of-sale system is settled. This gives you the payment time, amount and status if the register needs to be checked.

What the Lightning QR code actually contains

The QR image is only a convenient encoding. Your wallet decodes the underlying invoice and passes the request to its Lightning node or service. That system looks for a route through the Lightning Network to the recipient. Settlement is proved with a cryptographic preimage, while the recipient can check the corresponding payment hash.

The Bitcoin Design Guide describes an invoice as the basis of Lightning payment requests and characterizes invoices as single-use requests with built-in expiries. Its current guide, accessed in 2026, says the default expiry is 60 minutes. The expiry is measured from the invoice’s creation, not from the moment you notice it on the register, so an invoice shown for a long time may have less than an hour remaining.

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Invoice versus reusable identifier

A Lightning invoice is tied to a particular payment request. A Lightning Address or an LNURL-Pay link is a reusable identifier that can fetch a fresh invoice when contacted. That distinction matters at a café: the cashier’s point-of-sale system generally creates a new invoice containing the exact total, whereas a reusable identifier may require an additional amount-selection step.

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Using NFC instead of scanning

NFC can be faster than positioning a camera, but it is not a universal Lightning feature. Square’s documentation limits the tap flow to a second-generation Square Register and a Lightning-enabled wallet. Square Terminal, Square Stand and mobile devices do not support that documented NFC checkout.

  1. Ask whether the register accepts Lightning by NFC, not merely contactless cards.
  2. Open the wallet’s Lightning pay function and make sure the phone is unlocked.
  3. Choose Bitcoin or Lightning on the customer-facing display if the register requires that selection.
  4. Hold the phone near the reader until the wallet receives the payment request and displays the amount and merchant details.
  5. Approve the request, then wait for both the wallet and register to show completion.

If nothing happens when you tap, switch to the QR or invoice-text method. The failure may be a hardware or register-compatibility limitation rather than a problem with your wallet balance.

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Troubleshooting common failures

The QR code will not scan

  • Increase the register screen’s brightness.
  • Move the phone back so the complete QR code is visible; zooming out often helps.
  • Clean the phone camera lens and hold the camera steady.
  • Ask the cashier for the invoice string and paste it into the wallet.
  • If the code changed while you were trying to scan, discard the old image and use the newest invoice.

Do not approve a payment from a partially visible code or from text you cannot verify. The wallet should show a complete invoice and its decoded details before payment.

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The invoice has expired

An expired invoice cannot be revived. Tell the cashier that the request timed out and ask for a new invoice. Scan or paste the replacement, then check its amount, description and new expiry. Because invoices are normally single-use, do not keep retrying an old request after the register has generated another one.

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The wallet says success, but the register has not changed

Wait briefly with the confirmation screen open, then ask the cashier to verify the point-of-sale status. Square says a transaction taking more than five minutes can be declined and requires a new cart or invoice. If the register still shows an unpaid cart after that point, do not pay the same order again until the cashier determines whether the first attempt settled.

The wallet reports failure or cannot find a route

Read the wallet’s status and ask the cashier whether the invoice is still active. If the invoice remains valid, the cashier can issue a fresh request and you can try again. If the wallet repeatedly fails while other customers can pay, use another payment method and retain the failed-payment details for the wallet provider. Avoid making multiple blind attempts against changing invoices.

The displayed amount is wrong

Stop before authorizing the transaction. Show the discrepancy to the cashier and request a corrected invoice. A Lightning payment settles the amount encoded in the request; it does not automatically adjust to the printed receipt.

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You paid, but the order was not completed

Keep the wallet receipt and show the payment status and amount to the cashier. Ask the café to check its register or payment dashboard using the invoice details. Do not delete the wallet record until the café has resolved the order.

How to verify that the payment is settled

Your wallet’s successful status is the first indication. The café’s register should also move to a paid or confirmed state. In the underlying Lightning protocol, the recipient verifies settlement using the payment hash and the cryptographic preimage. You do not normally need to inspect those values at the counter, but they explain why a valid payment can be recognized without waiting for an on-chain block confirmation.

  • Wallet: Shows a completed or successful Lightning payment, not merely a pending attempt.
  • Register: Shows the order as paid or otherwise confirms receipt.
  • Receipt: Records the amount and payment status for your own reference.

If the wallet and register disagree, treat the transaction as unresolved until the merchant verifies it. Paying a second time can create a duplicate charge.

Practical safeguards at a busy café

  • Check the merchant description: Make sure the request identifies the café or order you are paying for.
  • Check the exact amount: Compare the invoice with the total before authorizing.
  • Check the expiry: A nearly expired request may fail while you are waiting in line; ask for a new one instead of repeatedly retrying.
  • Keep the phone unlocked and connected: A locked screen, weak connection or dead battery can interrupt scanning or authorization.
  • Do not confuse payment types: A Bitcoin on-chain address, a Lightning invoice and a Lightning Address serve different purposes.
  • Retain the confirmation: Keep it until the drink or food is handed over and the register agrees.

A quick decision guide

Use QR when:

  • The cashier presents a Lightning invoice on the register.
  • Your wallet has a camera or accepts pasted invoice text.
  • You want the most broadly documented checkout method.

Use NFC when:

  • The café confirms that its hardware supports Lightning tap payments.
  • The register is a second-generation Square Register.
  • Your wallet is Lightning-enabled and the phone can complete an NFC interaction.

Ask for a fresh invoice when:

  • The wallet says the current invoice expired.
  • The cart total changed.
  • The register created a replacement cart after a delayed or declined transaction.

What to remember at the counter

  1. Fund a Lightning-enabled wallet before you order.
  2. Confirm that this café accepts Lightning.
  3. Choose QR or compatible NFC.
  4. Inspect the destination, amount, description and expiry.
  5. Approve only once, then wait for both wallet and register confirmation.
  6. Keep the receipt until the order is complete; an expired request always needs a new invoice.

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