Glossary · moving money
What is a beneficiary?
A beneficiary is a saved recipient: a name, an asset, a network and a verified wallet address, stored so you can pay the same person again without transcribing anything.
Why saving a recipient is a control and not a convenience
The dangerous moment in any payout is the one where somebody copies an address from an email into a payment form. Every repeat payment repeats that risk for no reason.
A saved beneficiary moves the risk to a single verification, done once. After that you select a name from a list, which cannot be mistyped and cannot be swapped by someone editing an email thread.
It also creates a record of who your company pays, which is a compliance asset rather than an administrative one. A list of verified beneficiaries answers questions that an audit will otherwise ask one payment at a time.
At CoinGate a beneficiary is also created automatically when someone claims a payout link, which means the address arrives verified by the person who owns it.
What it gives you
Three benefits, and the first one is the reason to bother.
No repeated transcription
Verify once, pay many times. This removes the commonest cause of lost funds.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to save recipients?
No. You can pay a one-off address directly. Saving is what makes repeat payments safe.
How does a payout link create one?
When the recipient claims the link they enter their own asset, network and address, which are checked and then stored as a beneficiary. You never handle the details.
Can I control who is allowed to add one?
Role and permission settings govern who can create beneficiaries and who can approve a payout. User management