Learn · Refunds
How do refunds work when there are no chargebacks?
Lightning payments are final. A refund here is not a reversal. It is a new payment, in the other direction, that the artist chooses to send. This page explains why that is the only honest way a refund can work on this architecture, and exactly how to do one.
A card payment runs through intermediaries, and those intermediaries can unwind it later. A Lightning payment does not. Settlement completes when the recipient claims the funds cryptographically, and at that moment it is final. There is no operator in the middle with the power to reverse it.
Lightning FM adds nothing that could change this, because it is never in the money path. A buyer pays an invoice minted by the artist's own wallet, and the sats settle from buyer to artist. We cannot claw a payment back for the same reason we cannot take a cut: the money is never ours to act on.
A refund is a second payment that retraces the first one. The flow is short:
1. The buyer asks the artist for a refund.
2. The buyer generates a BOLT 11 invoice[1] for the amount in their own Lightning wallet.
3. The artist pays that invoice from their wallet.
Any Lightning wallet can do this today. Generating an invoice is the most basic thing a wallet does, so no special tooling, no platform feature, and no permission from us is involved. The refund settles wallet to wallet, exactly like the sale did.
With no dispute desk, trust shifts to the artist's reputation. That is a real shift and we won't pretend otherwise. What you get in exchange is the rest of the architecture: no intermediary fees, no processor between artist and listener, and money that settles instantly to the person who made the music.
The same structure cuts the other way too. A platform that cannot force a refund is also a platform that cannot freeze or seize an artist's money. You do not get one without the other; both are consequences of nobody holding the funds but the artist.
Can Lightning FM force an artist to issue a refund?
No, and not as a policy choice. The money from a sale settles from the buyer's wallet to the artist's wallet and never passes through the platform. There is no balance we hold, no payout we can withhold, and no transaction we can reverse. A refund can only come from the artist, voluntarily.
How do I actually request a refund?
Contact the artist. If they agree, you generate a BOLT 11 invoice for the refund amount in your own Lightning wallet and send it to them, and they pay it. Every Lightning wallet can generate an invoice today; no Lightning FM feature is involved and none is needed.
Why doesn't Lightning have chargebacks?
Because settlement is final at the protocol level. A Lightning payment completes when the recipient reveals a cryptographic secret in exchange for the funds; there is no network operator who can unwind it afterward. That finality is the same property that lets the money go straight to the artist with no intermediary.
Isn't that worse for buyers than a card?
It is a different trade. A card gives you a dispute process run by an intermediary, and that intermediary sits in the money path, takes fees, and can also freeze or reverse the seller's funds. Lightning removes the intermediary entirely: buyers rely on the artist's reputation rather than a processor's dispute desk. Purchases here are small, direct, and from a named artist whose catalog is signed by their own key.
Can a payment be reversed if I make a mistake?
No. A settled Lightning payment is final, including mistaken ones. Check the amount and the listing before you pay. If you overpay or buy in error, the remedy is the same voluntary refund flow: ask the artist, and send them an invoice from your wallet.
Facts change. Every claim above links to its source as of the date shown. Check the source, and if we're out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.