Merchant API

The Merchant API is a new development in Bitcoin, planned to be introduced in 2020.

The API will enable merchants accepting Bitcoin transactions to get all of the assurance they need to be able to accept transactions on a 'zero confirmation' basis (see Confirmation). Merchants will be able to find out in advance (even before broadcasting a transaction) what transaction fee is required by miners to mine it.

As explained by Steve Shadders in Steve Shadders Discusses the Bitcoin SV (BSV) Tech Pillars - Bitstocks Podcast Ep. 7 at 36m 12s:

"If you can broadcast a transaction to miners and then get a response from them a second later, to say that they've accepted the transaction, then the 'zero conf' problem largely goes away".

It also allows miners to put user based fee policies in place. See The dawn of the age of competitive mining (Steve Shadders, yours.org, October 2019)