Bitcoin Wiki - User contributions [en]

Bitcoin API Services

2011-12-21T20:24:02Z

Bitcoinservices:

Bitcoin API Services makes accepting Bitcoin payments as easy as handling HTTP requests.

Unlike most online payment notification services, payments are not actually sent to Bitcoin API Services, so there is no need of entrusting someone else with your wallet, or letting someone else manage one for you. Payments go directly from a customer to the merchant

Bitcoin API Services also delivers HTTP POST notifications about Bitcoin exchange rates, and difficulty rates.

== How it works ==
Bitcoin API Services works by monitoring the Bitcoin network for transactions sent to addresses you can specify in your account. Bitcoin API Services can currently:

* POST amounts for variable price transactions.
* POST amounts for fixed price transactions.
* Make POSTs on Mt Gox currency and difficulty updates.

== Integration Details ==
* Merchant generates a number of Bitcoin addresses and enters them into his account. At the same time, merchant places these addresses into his store.
* The store software assigns one of these addresses to each order, or session. Once the user sends bitcoins to this address, the order is completed for the user.
* Meanwhile, the back-end of the merchants store waits for the confirmation from Bitcoin API Services. Once a confirmation is received the merchants store can either display the product to the user, or send the user an e-mail letting them know that the payment has been accepted. The address used can be released again for future use.

==History==
The service was proposed in mid-December as a redundancy to [[BitcoinNotify]]. The service officially went into beta on Wednesday, December 21st.

==See Also==
* [[:Category:ECommerce|eCommerce]]

==External Links==
* [http://www.bitcoinapiservices.com BitcoinAPIServices web site]

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Shopping Cart Interfaces]]
[[Category:Services]]

Bitcoin API Services

2011-12-21T20:20:50Z

Bitcoinservices: Initial article

Bitcoin API Services makes accepting Bitcoin payments as easy as handling HTTP requests.

Unlike most online payment notification services, payments are not actually sent to Bitcoin API Services, so there is no need of entrusting someone else with your wallet, or letting someone else manage one for you. Payments go directly from a customer to the merchant

Bitcoin API Services also delivers HTTP POST notifications about Bitcoin exchange rates, and difficulty rates.

== How it works ==
Bitcoin API Services works by monitoring the Bitcoin network for transactions sent to addresses you can specify in your account. Bitcoin API Services can currently:

* POST amounts for variable price transactions.
* POST amounts for fixed price transactions.
* Make POSTs on Mt Gox currency and difficulty updates.

== Integration Details ==
* Merchant generates a number of Bitcoin addresses and enters them into his account. At the same time, merchant places these addresses into his store.
* The store software assigns one of these addresses to each order, or session. Once the user sends bitcoins to this address, the order is completed for the user.
* Meanwhile, the back-end of the merchants store waits for the confirmation from Bitcoin API Services. Once a confirmation is received the merchants store can either display the product to the user, or send the user an e-mail letting them know that the payment has been accepted. The address used can be released again for future use.

==History==
The service was proposed in mid-December as a redundancy to [[BitcoinNotify]]. The service officially went into beta on Wednesday, December 21st.

==See Also==

* [[:Category:ECommerce|eCommerce]]

==External Links==

* [http://www.bitcoinapiservices.com BitcoinAPIServices web site]

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Shopping Cart Interfaces]]
[[Category:Services]]

Merchant Howto

2011-12-21T20:02:27Z

Bitcoinservices: Added Bitcoin API Services

Accepting Bitcoins is easy, and there are several ways to do it.

==Manually==
# Download a bitcoin client
# When a customer wants to buy something, send them a Bitcoin address where their payment should be sent.
#* You can do this by clicking "New.." next to your address in the Bitcoin client and sending that address to the customer.
# When payment comes in to that address, send the goods to your customer. Depending on the value of what you're selling, you may wish to wait until the payment shows Confirmed.
# To issue a refund, obtain from the customer the [[Address|bitcoin address]] where the refund payment should be sent. The refund address will likely be different from the address used when the customer sent payment, especially if an [[EWallet]] was used by the customer.

==Automated==
===Pre-generating Bitcoin addresses===
You can accept Bitcoins on your website without needing to use Bitcoin APIs or third party services if you pre-generate a large number of receiving Bitcoin addresses and store them in a database on your web server, and dispense them one-by-one to customers when they are ready to pay. This way, your web server never actually handles the bitcoins - it simply gives out addresses belonging to a wallet you maintain elsewhere. By using a unique address per order, you will always know which payment belongs to which order. [https://www.casascius.com Example of website using this method]

To pre-generate addresses, use a tool such as [[Pywallet]] (which can generate a wallet.dat file) or [[Bitcoin Address Utility]] (which can generate a CSV file). In both cases, you will be generating a list of [[Address|Bitcoin address]]es along with their corresponding [[private key]]s. Only the Bitcoin addresses (not the private keys) should be loaded on the web server.

If you are shipping goods manually, you can use the Bitcoin software to check for incoming payments, or alternately consider using [[Block Explorer]] or [[Abe]] to verify payment when you're about to ship. To make this easy, make your website provide you a full hyperlink that includes the proper receiving address: ht<nowiki>tp://www</nowiki>.blockexplorer.com/address/ADDRESSGOESHERE.

If you are delivering digital goods or services and want to be able to deliver instantly upon payment and/or confirmation, you can use a third-party service such as [[Bitcoin Notify]] to tell your website when a payment has been received. This sort of service requires no significant API implementation - they will simply make a POST to your website or send you an e-mail when a payment has been received on one of your addresses.

If you keep Bitcoins off your web server, this ensures your wallet cannot be stolen if your web server experiences a security intrusion. Your risk becomes limited to the possibility that a successful intruder could add his own addresses to your address pool and steal funds from a few incoming orders until you detect the problem, however, this is a relatively controllable risk.

===Using a third-party API===
You can use an existing [[:Category:Shopping Cart Interfaces|shopping cart interface]] or utilize the Bitcoin client's [[API tutorial (JSON-RPC)|JSON-RPC API]] to automatically accept payments.

Set up a system that:
# When a customer orders something on your website it records:
#* Bitcoin address that payment should be sent to
#* Order details (delivery address etc.)
#* Customer's refund address (optional - if you wish you can ask for this later, only in cases a refund is required)
#* Payment amount
# When payment arrives, checks that they have paid the correct amount or not, and informs you
#* You dispatch the goods to the customer and mark the order as fulfilled
#* If you cannot dispatch the goods you mark the order as denied and ask the customer for a refund address (unless you already have it from earlier) to send a refund.
# Forwards the funds to bitcoin address of your choice

==Common Errors==
It has been observed on occasion that a business funnels all its orders through the same Bitcoin address, and asks people to send some BTC, then send email describing the timing and the amount of the transaction to 'claim' it. This is '''not''' secure, since anyone can see the transaction details using a tool such as [[Block Explorer]], and then try to claim someone else's transaction as theirs.

Do not do this. Give each customer a unique Bitcoin address.

==Listing your business on the Bitcoin Trade page==

Anyone can add and update a listing on the [[Trade|trade]] page. Just register if you haven't and add to the appropriate category. If you'ld like assistance, perhaps someone in the [http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#bitcoin-marketing #bitcoin-marketing] IRC channel would be willing to assist.

==See Also==
* [[In-store Transactions]]
* [[:Category:Shopping Cart Interfaces|Shopping Cart Interfaces]]
* [[Bitcoin Evolution]] handles sales tracking and order forms; requires Bitcoin client for actual payment
* [[Bitcoin PayFlow]] automates the process for accepting bitcoins
* [[Bitcoin API Services]] an easy solution for securely accepting Bitcoins and updating BTC prices
* [[BitcoinNotify]] merchants solution for accepting Bitcoins and updating BTC prices
* [[Converter|Bitcoin Javascript Converter]] displays a price in BTCs after converting from USDs.
* [[How to accept Bitcoin, for small businesses]]
* [[:Category:Marketing|Marketing]]
* [[URI Scheme]]
* [[Promotional graphics]], buttons and logos
* [[Bit-Pay.com]] Merchant solutions for Bitcoin
[[Category:ECommerce]]