{"number":71,"title":"Payment Protocol MIME types","authors":["Gavin Andresen"],"status":"Deployed","type":"Specification","layer":"Applications","created":"2013-07-29","requires":[],"replaces":[],"replacedBy":[],"discussion":[],"abstract":"This BIP defines a MIME (RFC 2046) Media Type for Bitcoin payment request messages.","eli5":"Defines official internet media types (MIME types) for payment protocol messages. These labels let browsers and email programs recognize a Bitcoin payment request and pass it to the right wallet.","categories":["payments","contracts"],"filename":"bip-0071.mediawiki","githubUrl":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0071.mediawiki","format":"mediawiki","readingMinutes":1,"inbound":2,"revisions":11,"impact":61,"core":false,"references":[],"lastModified":"2025-10-08","html":"<h2 id=\"abstract\">Abstract</h2>\n<p>This BIP defines a MIME (RFC 2046) Media Type for Bitcoin payment request messages.</p>\n<h2 id=\"motivation\">Motivation</h2>\n<p>Wallet or server software that sends payment protocol messages over email or http should follow Internet standards for properly encapsulating the messages.</p>\n<h2 id=\"specification\">Specification</h2>\n<p>The Media Type (Content-Type in HTML/email headers) for bitcoin protocol messages shall be:</p>\n<div class=\"table-wrap\"><table><tbody><tr><td>Message</td><td>Type/Subtype</td></tr><tr><td>PaymentRequest</td><td>application/bitcoin-paymentrequest</td></tr><tr><td>Payment</td><td>application/bitcoin-payment</td></tr><tr><td>PaymentACK</td><td>application/bitcoin-paymentack</td></tr></tbody></table></div>\n<p>Payment protocol messages are encoded in binary.</p>\n<h2 id=\"example\">Example</h2>\n<p>A web server generating a PaymentRequest message to initiate the payment protocol would precede the binary message data with the following headers:</p>\n<pre><code>Content-Type: application/bitcoin-paymentrequest\nContent-Transfer-Encoding: binary</code></pre>","toc":[{"id":"abstract","title":"Abstract","level":2},{"id":"motivation","title":"Motivation","level":2},{"id":"specification","title":"Specification","level":2},{"id":"example","title":"Example","level":2}],"history":{"totalCommits":11,"firstCommit":"2013-10-21T00:59:49-04:00","lastUpdated":"2025-10-08T14:59:36-07:00","events":[{"sha":"24e96e870fffaa257b465ce1f0370c14aac588e8","date":"2025-10-08T14:59:36-07:00","author":"Murch","message":"process: Created ↦ Assigned","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/24e96e870fffaa257b465ce1f0370c14aac588e8","kind":"edit"},{"sha":"5207ef92a52d0b8902895b0dbb40823a4d698ec9","date":"2025-04-11T20:08:17-07:00","author":"Murch","message":"process: Author ↦ Authors","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/5207ef92a52d0b8902895b0dbb40823a4d698ec9","kind":"edit"},{"sha":"59730dec4fb641a41589aa1b91d3c452f13e0e36","date":"2025-04-11T20:05:13-07:00","author":"Murch","message":"process: Remove Comments-URI and -Summary","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/59730dec4fb641a41589aa1b91d3c452f13e0e36","kind":"edit"},{"sha":"a233bde4af52c6a11269e2e6dd9707abce441ffe","date":"2025-04-11T18:19:21-07:00","author":"Murch","message":"process: Standards Track ↦ Specification","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/a233bde4af52c6a11269e2e6dd9707abce441ffe","kind":"edit"},{"sha":"5d3ceb37734f80b2ec206fc94245e3bfd6d5b0f0","date":"2025-04-11T18:08:44-07:00","author":"Murch","message":"process: Final/Active ↦ Deployed","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/5d3ceb37734f80b2ec206fc94245e3bfd6d5b0f0","kind":"status"},{"sha":"959fecc15bdad070afa63455468b1dba54655fa6","date":"2016-11-30T09:47:31+00:00","author":"Luke Dashjr","message":"Promote BIP 2 Draft->Active, and implement it","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/959fecc15bdad070afa63455468b1dba54655fa6","kind":"status"},{"sha":"72f18918a8ae655212ea2700b30f0dc4d758b843","date":"2016-11-30T09:45:33+00:00","author":"Luke Dashjr","message":"Promote BIP 123 Draft->Active, and implement it","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/72f18918a8ae655212ea2700b30f0dc4d758b843","kind":"status"},{"sha":"3aa996b5553b92e1e6b05b42448c7f657dac8760","date":"2014-06-12T10:46:26-04:00","author":"Gavin Andresen","message":"Status Draft --> Final","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/3aa996b5553b92e1e6b05b42448c7f657dac8760","kind":"status"},{"sha":"1647c7e6d3e3866454b803fd874df2d0c4991f4a","date":"2014-04-05T13:46:56+02:00","author":"Wladimir J. van der Laan","message":"Change date format to ISO 8601","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/1647c7e6d3e3866454b803fd874df2d0c4991f4a","kind":"edit"},{"sha":"d9e890a8f27e46806238e298a346397871fd7e87","date":"2013-10-21T02:18:47-04:00","author":"Peter Todd","message":"Fix formatting","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/d9e890a8f27e46806238e298a346397871fd7e87","kind":"edit"},{"sha":"fe026b8e00eea7b4fe92c62ac735d15191c218f9","date":"2013-10-21T00:59:49-04:00","author":"Peter Todd","message":"Archive Revision as of 01:47, 28 August 2013","url":"https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/commit/fe026b8e00eea7b4fe92c62ac735d15191c218f9","kind":"edit"}]}}