Token Invoice

Overview

A token invoice is a payment request that specifies settlement in a contract-issued or program-issued token rather than only a blockchain’s native coin. It must identify the token, blockchain network, approved contract or asset identifier, requested amount, payment destination, time window, and confirmation requirements.

It is broader than a stablecoin invoice because the token may represent a stablecoin, utility token, wrapped asset, or another fungible token. It differs from a token payment link: the invoice is the commercial obligation, while the link is a way to present it to the payer. Related operational concepts include Token Payment Link, Invoice Token Contract, and Supported Payment Token. They should remain connected through identifiers and evidence without being treated as the same payment state, control, or financial result.

The system should monitor the token’s transfer mechanism and avoid crediting native-coin transfers or look-alike tokens sent to the same address. The merchant also needs a defined confirmation threshold, refund method, settlement asset, accounting treatment, and exception process. The authoritative record for Token Invoice should also show the rule version, responsible system, permitted state transition, and any downstream action such as fulfillment, settlement, refund, or manual review.

The same token symbol can be used by unrelated contracts, and bridged versions may have different risk or liquidity. The merchant also needs a defined confirmation threshold, refund method, settlement asset, accounting treatment, and exception process. Testing should cover duplicated and out-of-order events, incorrect asset or network data, late transactions, provider outages, retries after uncertain responses, and manual intervention after one subsystem has already changed state.

Operational ownership for Token Invoice should cover configuration changes, access, monitoring, customer treatment, accounting, and escalation. This supports the central requirement that a token invoice is a payment request that specifies settlement in a contract-issued or program-issued token rather than only a blockchain’s native coin.