> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.cakewallet.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.cakewallet.com/features/privacy-and-security/silent-payments.md).

# Silent Payments

Say goodbye to "send me a new address." A Silent Payment address is a single Bitcoin address — starting with `sp1` — that you can post anywhere: your website, social media bio, a donation page. Every payment sent to it lands at a fresh, unique address on-chain that only you can find and spend.

## Why you'd want this

A normal Bitcoin address is public the moment you share it: anyone who sees it can look up every payment it ever receives. The usual fix is handing out a fresh address for every payment — fine for one-off transfers, painful for donations, tips, or anyone who pays you repeatedly.

Silent Payments remove the tradeoff. The sender's wallet uses your `sp1` address to *derive* a unique one-time address that only you can detect. On-chain, the payment looks like any ordinary Taproot transaction — observers can't even tell a Silent Payment happened, and unlike older reusable-address schemes (BIP47), there's no extra "notification" transaction leaking metadata.

Cake Wallet was the first wallet with with **full Silent Payments support** — both sending and receiving.

## Sending to a Silent Payment address

Nothing to learn: paste an `sp1...` address into the [Send screen](https://docs.cakewallet.com/features/basic/send-funds) like any other address. Your wallet handles the rest, and the recipient's privacy comes free.

## Receiving with Silent Payments

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

### Find your sp1 address

Tap `Receive`, tap the address type under the QR code, and choose `Silent Payments`. This address never changes — that's the point. Post it anywhere.

![Silent Payments receive address](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cake-tech/docs-assets/main/v6.3.1/fund_btc-sp_carrot-cake_receive_hl.png)
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Turn on scanning

Because payments to you are hidden on-chain, your wallet has to scan for them. Open `Settings` → `Privacy` → `Silent Payments` and enable `Set Silent Payments always scanning`.

![Silent Payments settings](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cake-tech/docs-assets/main/v6.3.1/silentpayments_scan_01_menu_hl.png)
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Let it catch up

While scanning, a small amber dot shows next to the chain chips on your home screen. If you know when your first Silent Payment arrived, use `Silent Payments Scanning` to scan from a specific date or block height instead of the whole chain — it's much faster.

![Scanning options: from height, from date, one block](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cake-tech/docs-assets/main/v6.3.1/silentpayments_scan_03_scanning-page.png)
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

## The honest tradeoffs

Privacy this good has one cost: **your wallet does the finding**. Nobody else can detect your payments, so no server can do it for you.

* **Scanning takes time.** The wallet checks candidate transactions block by block. Scanning from your wallet's creation date (rather than from the beginning) keeps this manageable, and `Scan one block` lets you check a specific block instantly.
* **Scanning uses battery and data** while active. If you receive Silent Payments rarely, you can leave always-scanning off and enable it when you're expecting one — payments are never lost, just not visible until you scan.
* **Scanning needs a tweak-capable node, and Cake Wallet will not switch yours.** If the node you have selected can't serve the data scanning needs, the scan runs against the default Cake Wallet server instead — see the note below.

{% hint style="warning" %}
**Which server does your scanning?** Silent Payments scanning needs an Electrum server that serves the silent-payments `tweaks` index — in practice an `electrs` build with tweak support. When a scan starts, Cake Wallet asks the node you currently have selected whether it can serve that data:

* **It can** — the scan runs against your own node.
* **It cannot** — the scan runs against Cake Wallet's own server, `electrs.cakewallet.com:50001`, instead.

Two things worth knowing about that fallback as the app behaves today. Your node setting is **not** changed — the rest of the wallet keeps using your selected node.

So if you run your own node specifically for privacy, confirm it is a tweak-capable `electrs` build and that your wallet is connected to it. Otherwise your Silent Payments scanning traffic goes to Cake Wallet's infrastructure to ensure Silent Payments continue to work.
{% endhint %}

## Learn more

For a deeper dive into how Silent Payments work under the hood, see [silentpayments.xyz](https://silentpayments.xyz).