[NWC] Add an encryption tag to negotiate upgrading to NIP44. (#1780)

Co-authored-by: Roland <33993199+rolznz@users.noreply.github.com>

1 files changed, 127 insertions, 21 deletions

diff --git a/47.md b/47.md
index 84f710e..298b399 100644
--- a/47.md
+++ b/47.md
@@ -28,15 +28,16 @@ Fundamentally NWC is communication between a **client** and **wallet service** b
  
  4. Once the payment is complete the **wallet service** will send an encrypted `response` (kind 23195) to the **user** over the relay(s) in the URI.
  
- 5. The **wallet service** may send encrypted notifications (kind 23196) of wallet events (such as a received payment) to the **client**.
+ 5. The **wallet service** may send encrypted notifications (kind 23197 or 23196) of wallet events (such as a received payment) to the **client**.
 
 ## Events
 
 There are four event kinds:
+
 - `NIP-47 info event`: 13194
 - `NIP-47 request`: 23194
 - `NIP-47 response`: 23195
-- `NIP-47 notification event`: 23196
+- `NIP-47 notification event`: 23197 (23196 for backwards compatibility with NIP-04)
 
 ### Info Event
 
@@ -46,34 +47,71 @@ The content should be a plaintext string with the supported capabilities space-s
 
 If the **wallet service** supports notifications, the info event SHOULD contain a `notifications` tag with the supported notification types space-separated, eg. `payment_received payment_sent`.
 
+It should also contain supported encryption modes as described in the [Encryption](#encryption) section. For example:
+
+```jsonc
+{
+    "kind": 13194,
+    "tags": [
+        ["encryption", "nip44_v2 nip04"], // List of supported encryption schemes as described in the Encryption section.
+        ["notifications", "payment_received payment_sent"]
+        // ...
+    ],
+    "content": "pay_invoice get_balance make_invoice lookup_invoice list_transactions get_info notifications",
+    // ...
+}
+```
+
 ### Request and Response Events
 
 Both the request and response events SHOULD contain one `p` tag, containing the public key of the **wallet service** if this is a request, and the public key of the **client** if this is a response. The response event SHOULD contain an `e` tag with the id of the request event it is responding to.
 Optionally, a request can have an `expiration` tag that has a unix timestamp in seconds. If the request is received after this timestamp, it should be ignored.
 
-The content of requests and responses is encrypted with [NIP04](04.md), and is a JSON-RPCish object with a semi-fixed structure:
+The content of requests and responses is encrypted with [NIP44](44.md), and is a JSON-RPCish object with a semi-fixed structure.
 
-Request:
-```jsonc
+**Important note for backwards-compatibility:** The initial version of the protocol used [NIP04](04.md). If a **wallet service** or client app does not include the `encryption` tag in the
+`info` or request events, it should be assumed that the connection is using NIP04 for encryption. See the [Encryption](#encryption) section for more information.
+
+Example request:
+
+```js
 {
-    "method": "pay_invoice", // method, string
-    "params": { // params, object
-        "invoice": "lnbc50n1..." // command-related data
-    }
+    "kind" 23194,
+    "tags": [
+        ["encryption", "nip44_v2"],
+        ["p", "03..." ] // public key of the wallet service.
+        // ...
+    ],
+    "content": nip44_encrypt({ // Encryption type corresponds to the `encryption` tag.
+        "method": "pay_invoice", // method, string
+        "params": { // params, object
+            "invoice": "lnbc50n1..." // command-related data
+        }
+    }),
 }
 ```
 
-Response:
-```jsonc
+Example response:
+
+```js
 {
-    "result_type": "pay_invoice", //indicates the structure of the result field
-    "error": { //object, non-null in case of error
-        "code": "UNAUTHORIZED", //string error code, see below
-        "message": "human readable error message"
-    },
-    "result": { // result, object. null in case of error.
-        "preimage": "0123456789abcdef..." // command-related data
-    }
+    "kind" 23195,
+    "tags": [
+        ["p", "03..." ] // public key of the requesting client app
+        ["e", "1234"] // id of the request event this is responding to
+        // ...
+    ],
+    "content": nip44_encrypt({ // Encrypted using the scheme requested by the client.
+        "result_type": "pay_invoice", //indicates the structure of the result field
+        "error": { //object, non-null in case of error
+            "code": "UNAUTHORIZED", //string error code, see below
+            "message": "human readable error message"
+        },
+        "result": { // result, object. null in case of error.
+            "preimage": "0123456789abcdef..." // command-related data
+        }
+    })
+    // ...
 }
 ```
 
@@ -83,9 +121,9 @@ If the command was successful, the `error` field must be null.
 
 ### Notification Events
 
-The notification event SHOULD contain one `p` tag, the public key of the **client**.
+The notification event is a kind 23197 event SHOULD contain one `p` tag, the public key of the **client**.
 
-The content of notifications is encrypted with [NIP04](04.md), and is a JSON-RPCish object with a semi-fixed structure:
+The content of notifications is encrypted with [NIP44](44.md) (or NIP-04 for legacy client apps), and is a JSON-RPCish object with a semi-fixed structure:
 
 ```jsonc
 {
@@ -96,6 +134,7 @@ The content of notifications is encrypted with [NIP04](04.md), and is a JSON-RPC
 }
 ```
 
+_Note on backwards-compatibility:_ If a **wallet service** supports both nip44 and nip04 for legacy client apps, it should publish both notification events for each notification - kind 23196 encrypted with NIP-04, and kind 23197 encrypted with NIP-44. It is up to the **client** to decide which event to listen to based on its supported encryption and declared supported encryption schemes of the **wallet service** in the `info` event.
 
 ### Error codes
 - `RATE_LIMITED`: The client is sending commands too fast. It should retry in a few seconds.
@@ -105,6 +144,7 @@ The content of notifications is encrypted with [NIP04](04.md), and is a JSON-RPC
 - `RESTRICTED`: This public key is not allowed to do this operation.
 - `UNAUTHORIZED`: This public key has no wallet connected.
 - `INTERNAL`: An internal error.
+- `UNSUPPORTED_ENCRYPTION`: The encryption type of the request is not supported by the wallet service.
 - `OTHER`: Other error.
 
 ## Nostr Wallet Connect URI
@@ -499,6 +539,71 @@ Notification:
 2. **wallet service** verifies that the author's key is authorized to perform the payment, decrypts the payload and sends the payment.
 3. **wallet service** responds to the event by sending an event with kind `23195` and content being a response either containing an error message or a preimage.
 
+## Encryption
+
+The initial version of NWC used [NIP-04](04.md) for encryption which has been deprecated and replaced by [NIP-44](44.md). NIP-44 should always be preferred for encryption, but there may be legacy cases
+where the **wallet service** or **client** has not yet migrated to NIP-44. The **wallet service** and **client** should negotiate the encryption method to use based on the `encryption` tag in the `info` event.
+
+The encryption tag can contain either `nip44_v2` or `nip04`. The absence of this tag implies that the wallet only supports `nip04`.
+
+| Encryption code | Use                  | Notes                                                   |
+|-----------------|----------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|
+| `nip44_v2`      | NIP-44               | Required                                                |
+| `nip04`         | NIP-04               | Deprecated and only here for backward compatibility     |
+| `<not present>` | NIP-04               | Deprecated and only here for backward compatibility     |
+
+The negotiation works as follows.
+
+1. The **wallet service** includes an `encryption` tag in the `info` event. This tag contains a space-separated list of encryption schemes that the **wallet service** supports (eg. `nip44_v2 nip04`)
+2. The **client application** includes an `encryption` tag in each request event. This tag contains the encryption scheme which should be used for the request. The **client application** should always prefer nip44 if supported by the **wallet service**.
+
+### Info event
+
+First, the **wallet service** adds an `encryption` tag to its `info` event containing a space-separated list of encryption schemes it supports. For example,
+if a wallet service supports nip44, but also allows backwards-compatibility to nip04 client applications, its `encryption` tag in the `info` event might look something like:
+
+```jsonc
+{
+    "kind": 13194,
+    "tags": [
+        ["encryption", "nip44_v2 nip04"],
+        // ...
+    ],
+    "content": "pay_invoice get_balance make_invoice lookup_invoice list_transactions get_info",
+    // ...
+}
+```
+
+When a **client application** establishes a connection, it should read the info event and look for the `encryption` tag.
+
+**Absence of this tag implies that the wallet only supports nip04.**
+
+If the `encryption` tag is present, the **client application** will choose optimal encryption supported by both itself, and the **wallet service**, which should always be nip44 if possible.
+
+### Request events
+
+When a **client application** sends a request event, it should include a `encryption` tag with the encryption scheme it is using. The scheme MUST be supported by the **wallet service** as indicated by the info event.
+For example, if the client application supports nip44, the request event might look like:
+
+```jsonc
+{
+    "kind": 23194,
+    "tags": [
+        ["encryption", "nip44_v2"],
+        // ...
+    ],
+    // ...
+}
+```
+
+If the **wallet service** does not support the specified encryption scheme, it will return an `UNSUPPORTED_ENCRYPTION` error. Absence of the `encryption` tag indicates use of nip04 for encryption.
+
+### Notification events
+
+As described above in the [Notifications](#notifications) section, if a **wallet service** supports both nip04 and nip44, it should publish two notification events for each notification - kind 23196 encrypted with NIP-04, and kind 23197 encrypted with NIP-44. If the **wallet service** only supports nip44, it should only publish kind 23197 events.
+
+The **client** should check the `encryption` tag in the `info` event to determine which encryption schemes the **wallet service** supports, and listen to the appropriate notification event.
+
 ## Using a dedicated relay
 This NIP does not specify any requirements on the type of relays used. However, if the user is using a custodial service it might make sense to use a relay that is hosted by the custodial service. The relay may then enforce authentication to prevent metadata leaks. Not depending on a 3rd party relay would also improve reliability in this case.
 
@@ -513,6 +618,7 @@ This NIP does not specify any requirements on the type of relays used. However,
   "created_at": 1713883677,
   "kind": 13194,
   "tags": [
+    [ "encryption", "nip44_v2 nip04" ],
     [
       "notifications",
       "payment_received payment_sent"