About Manatee API
A focused payment-infrastructure project.
Manatee was built around one practical distinction: a merchant can keep control of the wallet without operating every node, listener, payment monitor, and webhook worker behind the checkout.
- Operator
- Christian Hoppe
- Project
- Independent
- Location
- Germany
- Current stage
- Public beta
Why it exists
Self-custody and managed infrastructure solve different problems.
Self-custody determines who can move the Bitcoin. Infrastructure determines who keeps nodes connected, detects transactions, tracks confirmations, retries events, and exposes a stable interface to the store.
Manatee manages the second responsibility without taking the first. Customers pay merchant-controlled addresses. Manatee reports payment state, but cannot spend, reverse, or refund the funds.
Product principles
Narrow scope, explicit contracts.
- Non-custodial
- Wallet seed phrases and private keys stay outside Manatee. Settlement goes directly to addresses controlled by the merchant.
- API-first
- Payment states, idempotency, webhook signatures, retries, and reconciliation behavior are documented as integration contracts.
- Managed operations
- Manatee operates the payment-monitoring services. Merchants remain responsible for wallet security, fulfilment, support, and refunds.
- Transparent beta
- The service publishes current limits and release status. Contractual SLA and paid production terms are not presented before they exist.
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