diff --git a/gui/jsonrpc.py b/gui/jsonrpc.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0920fb3de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gui/jsonrpc.py
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+#
+# Electrum - lightweight Bitcoin client
+# Copyright (C) 2015 Thomas Voegtlin
+#
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+
+"""
+jsonrpc interface for webservers
+"""
+
+import socket, os
+from jsonrpclib.SimpleJSONRPCServer import SimpleJSONRPCServer, SimpleJSONRPCRequestHandler
+
+from electrum.wallet import WalletStorage, Wallet
+from electrum.commands import known_commands, Commands
+
+
+class RequestHandler(SimpleJSONRPCRequestHandler):
+
+    def do_OPTIONS(self):
+        self.send_response(200)
+        self.end_headers()
+
+    def end_headers(self):
+        self.send_header("Access-Control-Allow-Headers", 
+                         "Origin, X-Requested-With, Content-Type, Accept")
+        self.send_header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin", "*")
+        SimpleJSONRPCRequestHandler.end_headers(self)
+
+
+
+class ElectrumGui:
+
+    def __init__(self, config, network):
+        self.network = network
+        self.config = config
+        host = config.get('rpchost', 'localhost')
+        port = config.get('rpcport', 7777)
+        self.server = SimpleJSONRPCServer((host, port), requestHandler=RequestHandler)
+        self.server.socket.settimeout(1)
+        self.server.register_function(self.do_getrequest, 'getrequest')
+
+    def do_getrequest(self, key):
+        # fixme: we load and sync the wallet on each request
+        # the wallet should be synchronized in the daemon instead
+        storage = WalletStorage(self.config.get_wallet_path())
+        if not storage.file_exists:
+            raise BaseException("Wallet not found")
+        wallet = Wallet(storage)
+        wallet.start_threads(self.network)
+        cmd_runner = Commands(self.config, wallet, self.network)
+        result = cmd_runner.getrequest(key)
+        wallet.stop_threads()
+        return result
+
+    def main(self, url):
+        while True:
+            try:
+                self.server.handle_request()
+            except socket.timeout:
+                continue
+            except:
+                break
+
+
+
+"""
+* replace merchant script:
+    * client process that connects to the daemon, receives notifications and pushes callbacks
+    * it requires a new gui type
+
+     electrum -g jsonrpc &
+or:  electrum daemon loadwallet
+
+
+use the daemon:
+  pros: single process instead of 2
+  jsonrpc is not really a gui
+
+  the wallet sould be synced in the daemon (so that we can add requests from the gui, list them, etc)
+
+  short-term solution:
+    * serve jsonrpc requests with the daemon
+    * load wallet on each command
+    * open some rpc commands to public
+
+ * other solution:
+    * use a database
+    * 'addrequest' writes request to database
+
+the daemon does not need to load and sync the wallet
+
+ * daemon loadwallet
+ * 
+
+
+ Private methods: 
+    wallet commands
+
+ Public methods:
+  - getrequest(key)
+  - paymentack(): 
+     is sent as the body of the POST
+  
+
+
+"""
diff --git a/lib/commands.py b/lib/commands.py
index 4a4e67b49..afd9130d0 100644
--- a/lib/commands.py
+++ b/lib/commands.py
@@ -708,7 +708,7 @@ def get_parser(run_gui, run_daemon, run_cmdline):
     parser_gui = subparsers.add_parser('gui', parents=[parent_parser], description="Run Electrum's Graphical User Interface.", help="Run GUI (default)")
     parser_gui.add_argument("url", nargs='?', default=None, help="bitcoin URI (or bip70 file)")
     parser_gui.set_defaults(func=run_gui)
-    parser_gui.add_argument("-g", "--gui", dest="gui", help="select graphical user interface", choices=['qt', 'lite', 'gtk', 'text', 'stdio'])
+    parser_gui.add_argument("-g", "--gui", dest="gui", help="select graphical user interface", choices=['qt', 'lite', 'gtk', 'text', 'stdio', 'jsonrpc'])
     parser_gui.add_argument("-m", action="store_true", dest="hide_gui", default=False, help="hide GUI on startup")
     parser_gui.add_argument("-L", "--lang", dest="language", default=None, help="default language used in GUI")
     parser_gui.add_argument("-o", "--offline", action="store_true", dest="offline", default=False, help="Run the GUI offline")
diff --git a/lib/payrequest.html b/lib/payrequest.html
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..da388b3ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/payrequest.html
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+<!DOCTYPE HTML>
+<html>
+    <head>
+        <title>Payment request</title>
+        <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8" src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.9.1.min.js"></script>
+        <script type="text/javascript" src="https://raw.github.com/datagraph/jquery-jsonrpc/master/jquery.jsonrpc.js"></script>
+	<script type="text/javascript" src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/davidshimjs/qrcodejs/master/qrcode.js"></script>
+
+
+	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/css/result-light.css">
+	<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/jquery-ui.js"></script>
+	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://code.jquery.com/ui/1.10.3/themes/smoothness/jquery-ui.css">
+
+
+        <script type="text/javascript">
+            $(document).ready(function() {
+                $.jsonRPC.setup({
+                    endPoint : "http://localhost:7777",
+                    namespace : ""
+                });
+	        if (window.location.hash) {
+                    $.jsonRPC.request('getrequest', {
+                        params : [window.location.hash.substr(1)],
+                        success : function(data) {
+	                     new QRCode(document.getElementById("qrcode"), data.result.URI);
+                             $("<p />").text(data.result.reason).appendTo($("p#reason"));
+                             $("<p />").text(data.result.amount + "BTC").appendTo($("p#amount"));
+	                     $("a").attr("href", data.result.URI);
+                             $("<p />").text("Powered by Electrum").appendTo($("p#powered"));
+
+$(function () {
+    var current;
+    var max = 100;
+    var initial = data.result.timestamp;
+    var duration = data.result.expiration;
+    var current = 100 * (Math.floor(Date.now()/1000) - initial)/duration;
+    $("#progressbar").progressbar({
+        value: current,
+        max: max
+    });
+    function update() {
+        current = 100 * (Math.floor(Date.now()/1000) - initial)/duration;
+        $("#progressbar").progressbar({
+            value: current
+        });
+        if (duration && current >= max) {
+	    $("#container").html("expired:", duration);
+	}
+	if(!duration) clearInterval(interval);
+    };
+    var interval = setInterval(update, 1000);
+});
+
+                        },
+                        error : function(data) {
+                            $("<p />").text("error").appendTo($("p#error"));
+                            $("<p />").text(data.error.message).appendTo($("p#error"));
+                        }
+                    });
+
+	        }
+
+            });
+	</script>
+    </head>
+    <body>
+	<div id="container" style="width:20em; text-align:center; margin:auto; font-family:arial, serif;">
+            <p id="error"></p>
+            <p id="reason"></p>
+            <p id="amount"></p>
+	    <div style="background-color:#7777aa; border-radius: 5px; padding:10px;">
+		<a style="color:#ffffff; text-decoration:none;" id="paylink">Pay with Bitcoin</a>
+	    </div>
+	    <br/>
+	    <div id="qrcode" align="center"></div>
+            <p id="powered" style="font-size:80%;"></p>
+	    <div id="progressbar"></div>
+	</div>
+
+    </body>
+</html>
+