Why criminals can't hide behind Bitcoin
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Learn about the JavaScript API used for blockchain operations, best practices, and the transaction lifecycle so you can build a scalable system. I have implemented dozens of different kinds of payment methods like PayPal, DotPay, or even credit cards.
Every integration seemed a little bit different, but after I created my very first payment integration with the blockchain technology, I realized that it was something new for me; that I cannot just send the user blockchain transaction id tracking number my application to the third party service and wait for a response with confirmation or rejected status.
Using the blockchain makes me responsible for everything I may or may not have been aware of during the payment process. In this part, I would like to present one way in which you can integrate your application, exchange system, ICO, or e-commerce shop and give your users the ability to pay with, buy blockchain transaction id tracking number donate Bitcoins.
I will start with a general overview of the transaction lifecycle and then implement this process with the JavaScript application.
The main question is always "why". Why should you integrate your application with Bitcoin payments or even consider integrating with the Blockchain and avoid using ready-to-use services? Implementing your own solution lets you avoid paying a few percent of fees to other companies the buyer still needs to pay the Blockchain fees, but she has to do it anyway, in every solution.
If you want to keep this money in your pocket, this article is for you. After this part, you will know how blockchain transaction id tracking number integrate the Bitcoin payment method with your application. The purpose you use it for is up to you. You can make a blockchain transaction id tracking number to exchange crypto and fiat currency, make an investment platform or open an ICO; blockchain transaction id tracking number possibilities are endless, but all of them include you accepting Bitcoin payments.
For our purposes, we will assume that we have an e-commerce business and we want to give the clients the option to pay with Bitcoins.
This is the easiest example that I can imagine because it does not require us to discuss any additional business logic. During the order process, the user can choose between different payment processes including Bitcoin. We will focus only on this one. The user is asked to choose a bank or enter a credit card number to finish the transaction, and the third party system takes care of the validation process, etc.
In the next step, the application just waits for a callback response with the information that the payment is accepted, rejected, or pending. If it is accepted, you can be pretty confident that the money is yours. The advantage of this solution is that the responsibility for the process is taken by the third party. If they give your application the information that the payment has been successful, but it was not, they need to cover the difference. On the other hand, all payment systems I was working with always had a way to withdraw blockchain transaction id tracking number.
The Blockchain and traditional Internet payment methods are different, and all differences start at the very beginning. Any payment system that works with the Blockchain can deliver the same API ex. But minus the fees. We cannot redirect the user to any external service because we do not know where he keeps his wallet.
He could be managing his wallet on his own computer like we are. Moreover, because all payments have to be anonymous in the Blockchain, the transaction cannot provide or store any information like the sender name, receiver name, or the title. This forces us to take a different approach and recognize the payer not with the order number or ID but rather with the final address in Bitcoin. The transaction can be presented as a short message that says: Because the Blockchain is decentralized, the payment needs to be done manually, by the user like with a traditional fiat transfer from the bank account.
But, the transfer should be completed in approximately 10 to 30 minutes, depending on the fee which is defined by the payer. The system presents a price without this fee, but if the funds should be transferred to the cold wallet, which may happen in ICO-projects or with bigger transactions, you need to be aware that there will be another fee which needs to be paid with the new transfer.
Then, the application needs to synchronize with the Bitcoin Blockchain and check if the transaction is included in the last block. This is the very first confirmation that it has. The last step is to gather as many confirmations from the Blockchain as we need. I will show you how to connect your JavaScript application with the Blockchain and how to process the full transaction lifecycle from the very beginning, when the user requests Bitcoin payment, to the very end, when the transfer is confirmed.
The library that we are going to use is called bitcore-lib and is published at https: We will use the node to support the development and the npm or bower package managers, depend on the operating system. At this point, I assume that you are already familiar with those technologies. If not, I strongly recommend one of the Node. Blockchain transaction id tracking number is a package that allows you to connect to the Bitcoin node and call the API endpoints. Bitcore-explorers is responsible for making bitcoin transactions and can be installed with: When the required packages are installed, we can start to write the code.
We will start by creating a connection with the Bitcoin node and its API. To do it, we can use the following script: The presented WIF number should be saved in the configuration.
This is a private key that we will use to authorize the transaction. Now, we will use it to connect to the wallet: And finally, we have generated a new address for the wallet that we will use for our application. When the user wants to pay with Bitcoin, the system should present him an address that he should send the funds to. The best approach is to present the address and the QR code, because many people use mobile applications which can scan the QR codes.
The new blockchain transaction id tracking number should be generated for each user or even for each order, because all the information that the transaction payload contains about the sender in the Blockchain is limited only to the address that the funds are transferred from, amount and timestamp.
Because this information is fully anonymous, the sender cannot be identified blockchain transaction id tracking number the sender address.
But, the Blockchain does not limit the number of addresses assigned to your wallet, so for every new buyer on your website, new address should be generated. If any funds are transferred and confirmed to the address A1, we will know that this is a payment which should be assigned to user U1, or somebody else wants to pay for him.
Before we generate a new address for the user, we need to create a totally new Wallet for our application. Share this secret with your copayers: We will work on this piece of code from now on. Then, we can execute any call to this API using this client. The createWallet method accepts a couple of parameters — a wallet name, copayer name, two random numbers, advanced options blockchain transaction id tracking number our case we specify that we will use TestNetand a callback function.
As a result, we will receive a secret hash which we will use to operate our wallet. Information about the type of cryptocurrency, network, private and public keys, etc. This step can and should be executed only once, and the secret key can be copied to the configuration file in your application or kept in another safe place. Now it is time to generate new random and unique address for our user. As I mentioned before, Bitcoin does not allow adding additional fields or information to the transaction.
Thus we can recognize the payer only by this unique address. This address will be connected with our Blockchain transaction id tracking number, which we created a moment ago, but this connection will not be visible to anybody else. Creating an address is an action that saves something to the blockchain, so we need to unblock our wallet first. The same happens when a transaction is sent. In the 14th line, we call the joinWallet method, which authenticates the application with the secret key.
That is the same key we generated in the previous blockchain transaction id tracking number. Another method, openWalletin line 24, opens this Wallet, and from now on, we will be able to write to the blockchain. As the only argument, it accepts the callback function where we will create a new Address. Line 30 is responsible for creating the new address. Thus, we will receive an Address object with the field addresswhich should be presented to the user and saved in the database for future reference.
We can just improve the way how or when we present payment information. At this point, the user scans the QR code or copies the address to his wallet and makes the payment. When that happens, the payment is published to the Blockchain but has not been included in any block yet.
It is on the pending list, and we can get information about its status. Until the block with this transaction is mined, the payment is not secure, so we cannot trust it. But, we can give the user the feedback that we noticed the payment. To do it, we can call an API method that delivers a full list of all pending transactions. Once, the transaction is mined, it will be moved from this list to the block.
At this point, we can check if any new pending transaction for the address generated for our user has appeared. When the Steam platform allowed Bitcoin payments, they did the same. The first step was to present a unique address for the user, and if she did not close the page and transferred coins to this address, the Steam platform displayed the current payment status as Pending. To approach the same behavior, we can list all transactions for the address, and before being mined, they will have 0 confirmations.
At this point, the transaction is Pending and cannot be treated as safe. However, we can always inform the user that we immediately noticed the payment. This pair of tools allows us to review the blockchain without having a wallet.
I strongly recommend you connect and open the Wallet only and only when it is necessary. In this piece of code, I used an address where I transferred some amount of coins, but they have not been mined yet.
Therefore, I can see that the txs method returns a list of transactions blockchain transaction id tracking number only one element which has no confirmations. There are two ways of getting information about the transaction now — the first one is to save the transaction id blockchain transaction id tracking number the pending list and track its status with a cronjob or another system, or listen to the last published block and get a list of transactions included blockchain transaction id tracking number it.
It does not mean it is better, just different. This is one of the approaches for getting information about the current payment status. Blockchain transaction id tracking number you already got the transaction ID, then you can omit this step and go directly to step four.
