Understanding RGB
An RGB payment gives the recipient two things to check: a change in asset ownership and the Bitcoin transaction that anchors it. VOUT brings those checks into the wallet, alongside the actions people need to take: find an asset, create a request, send a payment, and keep a backup.
This arrangement has a consequence that matters from the first payment. Your RGB wallet holds information that a Bitcoin block explorer cannot reconstruct for you. Keeping your keys is essential. Keeping the asset data is essential too.
What Bitcoin does
Bitcoin records transactions that spend existing outputs and create new ones. Once an output is spent in the accepted chain, another transaction cannot spend the same output there. RGB uses that property through a single-use seal: an asset state is tied to a seal whose closure is witnessed by a Bitcoin transaction.
The transaction contains a commitment that connects it to the RGB operation. Bitcoin nodes enforce Bitcoin’s spending rules. The recipient’s RGB software checks the contract and the asset transition. This division is part of RGB’s client-side validation model. The RGB v0.12 release description explains its seal model and the data exchanged between participants.
Bitcoin confirmation alone therefore cannot tell you that a particular RGB payment arrived. The wallet also needs its proof.
What the wallet receives
Before someone pays you, VOUT creates an RGB receive request for a specific asset and amount. The request identifies the beneficiary, has an expiry, and tells the sender where to deliver the transfer data. Share the complete request or its QR code; a Bitcoin address by itself does not express this information.
The sender supplies a consignment, the package of RGB data needed to validate the transfer. VOUT checks that package against the requested contract, amount, beneficiary, and network. It also checks the relevant Bitcoin anchor before making the received asset available.
A relay carries the package between wallets. Uploading it to the relay is one step in delivery. It does not make the package valid or establish your balance. Those decisions remain in the wallet.
Why receiving needs a little Bitcoin
VOUT’s on-chain receive flow uses a Bitcoin output controlled by your wallet to hold the ownership seal. A new wallet may need funding before it can prepare its first RGB request.
The Bitcoin in this output remains under your wallet’s control. It is not a payment to VOUT. Preparing or moving outputs can incur a Bitcoin network fee, and Bitcoin attached to active RGB state cannot be treated as ordinary spare change without preserving that state. The wallet handles that distinction when it selects inputs.
The fees guide separates network fees from Bitcoin retained in these outputs. Avoid treating a displayed seal amount as the total price of every RGB operation.
What belongs in your backup
A recovery phrase can reproduce keys. It does not reproduce the RGB proofs and local contract state accumulated through payments. A blockchain scan has no complete copy of those materials to download.
VOUT’s encrypted wallet backup includes the selected account’s keys, Bitcoin data, and canonical RGB state. Keep a fresh backup after wallet activity, and back up separate accounts and networks individually. The backup guide explains export, file checking, and recovery without confusing those steps.
Where to start
Use assets to understand what a listing tells you about a token. Then follow sending and receiving for the wallet flow. If a payment is waiting, the transfer lifecycle explains which evidence is still missing.
VOUT also offers a separate Lightning balance. Moving assets into that service changes their custody arrangement. The on-chain ownership model described on this page should not be applied to that balance.