A payment the receiver pulls

A normal payment is a push. You send, and the money lands.

A check is a pull. You write a note on the ledger that says: "This account may take up to 50 XRP from me." The receiver picks it up when they want. That step is called cashing the check.

It works like a paper check:

• You name who can cash it. Nobody else can.
• You set the most it can take. The receiver can take less.
• Your balance does not change when you write it.
• If your balance is too low when they cash it, cashing fails. They can try again later.

That last point is the big difference from an escrow or a payment channel. Those lock the money up front. A check locks nothing. It is a promise, and the ledger does not back it with funds.

Why use one?

• The receiver says yes. Some accounts block payments from strangers. A check lets them accept your money by their own action.
• Flexible amounts. The receiver can cash for an exact amount or for as much as is there.
• A familiar shape. Banks and businesses already think in checks.

Checks work for XRP and for tokens. They have been on mainnet since 2020-06-18.

CheckCreate creates a Check ledger entry. Fields:

The check can only credit the receiver in the same currency as SendMax, from the same issuer for tokens. There is no currency conversion inside a check.

The Check entry is linked from both owner directories, but it counts toward the sender's owner reserve only: one item, 0.2 XRP today. The reserve frees up when the check is cashed or canceled.

The entry's ID is a hash of the sender's address and the Sequence of the CheckCreate (or its TicketSequence). The receiver needs this CheckID to cash or cancel.

CheckCreate can fail with:

• tecNO_DST: the destination account does not exist.
• tecDST_TAG_NEEDED: the destination requires a tag and none was given.
• tecNO_PERMISSION: the destination blocks incoming checks.
• tecFROZEN: SendMax names a frozen token.
• tecEXPIRED: the Expiration is already in the past.
• tecINSUFFICIENT_RESERVE: the sender cannot cover the new owner reserve.
• temREDUNDANT: the sender and destination are the same account.

There are no flags on a Check entry.

Related: Owner reserve, Payments, tags and paths.