Recurring Payments in ZecWallet (Testnet)

Zcash Apps ZecWallet
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A new version of ZecWallet is out, and it now supports Recurring Payments! This feature is in beta, so it only works on Testnet. It’ll be released to mainnet soon! Download

Scheduled payments are automatically made and show up in your transaction history.

To get started, simply check the Recurring payment checkbox when sending a payment.

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You can now set up a schedule and control when the payments happen

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Confirm the recurring payment when you pay the first time.
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You can view your outstanding recurring payments and the schedule by going to Edit -> Recurring Payments

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Clicking View lets you see the payment history and upcoming payments

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If you miss a payment, ZecWallet will ask you what to do about the missing payments. You can pay all of them, none of them or just the last one.

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FAQ:
Why is it testnet only?
ZecWallet is making automatic payments, so I thought we should test it out extensively first, to find any bugs! Once there’s confidence that it works as intended, it’ll be available on mainnet.

What happens if ZecWallet is not open when a payment is due?
ZecWallet only makes payments when it is running. If you missed a payment because ZecWallet was not running, ZecWallet will ask you what to do about the missing payments. You can chose to pay only the last one, pay all of them or pay none

Are the payments automatic?
The first payment, when you set up the recurring payment, needs confirmation like every transaction. All subsequent payments are done automatically.

Can I cancel a recurring payment?
You can delete any recurring payment at any time. Go to Edit -> Recurring Payments to view and/or delete your payments

Why does it say pay “every 5 mins”?
To make testing easier, I’ve included an option to allow payments every 5 minutes. This will be removed when the feature is out of beta.

Where can I see the payments?
Payments made automatically as a part of recurring payments show up in the transaction history as usual. You can also click View on a recurring payment you have set up to view its entire history, where you can see the txids associated with past payments.

Other questions? Bugs? Opinions?
Please reply here or file a bug on the github page

8 Likes
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Hey @adityapk00 do you have any update on your plans to release this on mainnet?

Our friends at The Giving Block pointed out that recurring donations are a popular way to donate and this feature would probably open up some new use cases for Zcash.

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@aserrano I’ve dropped the idea of recurring payments, because I haven’t found a way to make them work safely. There’s a whole host of issues (eg. what happens if the wallet is closed and it’s time to make a payment. What if the wallet is encrypted and needs a password? What if multiple payments are missed because the wallet was offline).

I need to rethink the approach a little bit to revisit this.

1 Like
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Any privacy implications for doing recurring payments?

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It would be cool if you could create a single transaction that expressed a balance transfer from one account to another in some linear relationship to time :slight_smile:

The sender would still control the keys and could create another transaction that canceled it by pulling out the remaining funds.