This would possibly sound like a dumb query, however bear with me — it is an actual one
With conventional financial institution transfers in a enterprise context, it is normal follow to connect a reference to the transaction (bill quantity, buyer ID, and so forth.) in order that each events can reconcile it in opposition to their accounting ledgers.
I do know the advisable follow with Bitcoin is to generate a contemporary deal with per transaction/bill, which provides you each higher privateness (and arguably quantum resistance) and unambiguous reconciliation.
Nonetheless, that solely works if you management the receiving facet.
The Bitcoin community helps embedding further information in transactions (OP_RETURN), and EVM chains have the calldata/enter information area.
So why is it so unusual for functions — not simply browser wallets — to let the sender connect a reference when sending funds?
If blockchain funds are ever going to achieve mainstream enterprise adoption, this appears as clearly helpful as a financial institution fee reference.
I am asking as a result of I am personally affected: I am growing a blockchain transaction integration for an ERP system, and reconciliation with accounting is an actual ache with out it.
Just a few substantive notes earlier than you publish, since discussion board regulars will possible increase these:
OP_RETURN exists however is discouraged for this use — it prices additional charges, some wallets/nodes filter it, and the Bitcoin group traditionally resists utilizing the chain as a knowledge retailer. You would possibly preempt that by acknowledging it.
BIP21 fee URIs and BIP70/BIP71 (deprecated) / BIP270 tried to unravel precisely this on the protocol-adjacent layer — the reference lives within the fee request, not on-chain. Somebody will level this out, so you would sharpen your query to: “why did payment-request protocols with reference fields by no means acquire pockets adoption?” That is truly the deeper query.
On EVM, plain ETH transfers to EOAs can carry enter information, however ERC-20 transfers cannot simply (the information area is consumed by the switch() name itself) — price mentioning in case your ERP offers with stablecoins like USDC, since that is most likely your precise case.
