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Sending to someone who hasn't registered

When you send privately to an address that hasn't registered with Privacy Pools, the app stops before the review step and shows Recipient Not Registered. You can still send. This page is what that screen is warning you about.

What's different about this recipient​

A registered recipient has published a viewing key. Your payment is announced onchain in a form only they can read, and their wallet finds it on its own. You send and forget.

This recipient has no key. Nothing onchain can point them at the payment, so the app publishes nothing about it at all. Instead, after the transfer confirms, it gives you a one-time link containing what they need to find and later spend the money. That link is the only route to it.

What you do​

  1. Choose Send one time link on the warning screen, then review and send as normal. The relayer fee applies as for any private send.
  2. When the transfer confirms, the link is shown and copied for you. Send it to the recipient through a channel you trust.
  3. Keep the tab open until you've saved or sent the link. The app warns you if you try to close it while the link is at risk. If the transfer fails after it was broadcast, the link is still kept, so you don't lose the recipient's money to a failed screen.
  4. You can copy the link again later from the transfer's row in your transactions.

What the recipient does​

They open the link, connect the wallet that owns the address, and press Claim Payment. That registers their wallet through a relayer, for 0.1% plus gas taken from the payment, and puts the money in their shielded balance. The link only works with their wallet. See Claiming money you've received for their side in full.

Worth knowing​

  • The link is the only route to the money until it's claimed. Don't post it anywhere public.
  • Until they claim, the recipient can't move the money or exit the pool with it.
  • Claiming through the relayer doesn't publish their viewing key. If you send to them again before they finish setup, you'll be asked for another link.
  • The same applies when you deposit for another address on the Shield tab. That flow is described in Depositing to an address that hasn't registered.

The simpler alternative​

Ask them to register first. It's a one-time step from the wallet menu in the app. After that, every payment to them is found automatically, with nothing for you to send.