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Accept Bitcoin Payments

Manatee API helps your backend accept on-chain Bitcoin payments without running your own Bitcoin node, mempool monitor, confirmation worker, or webhook retry pipeline.

The payment flow stays non-custodial: your customer sends Bitcoin directly to a wallet address you control. Manatee watches the payment address, tracks the transaction lifecycle, and notifies your application when the payment is detected and confirmed.

How the checkout flow works​

  1. Your checkout creates an order in your own system.
  2. Your backend calls POST /v1/btc/payments with the amount in satoshis, confirmation policy, expiry, and webhook URL.
  3. Manatee returns a Bitcoin receiving address and a payment ID.
  4. Your frontend shows the address, exact amount, and expiry time to the customer.
  5. Manatee watches the Bitcoin network and sends signed webhook events as the payment status changes.
  6. Your backend verifies the webhook signature and marks the order as paid after payment.confirmed.

What Manatee handles​

  • Payment address monitoring
  • Mempool detection
  • Confirmation tracking
  • Payment expiry while the payment is still pending
  • Signed webhook delivery
  • Webhook retry attempts
  • Payment lookup by API

What stays in your system​

  • Product pricing and fiat-to-BTC conversion
  • Customer checkout UI
  • Wallet ownership and refund handling
  • Order fulfillment policy
  • Accounting and reconciliation records

Use a dedicated business wallet or wallet account for Manatee payments. Configure a receive descriptor or extended public key so each payment gets a fresh receiving address. Store the returned Manatee payment ID next to your own order ID and process webhook events idempotently.

Make your webhook route reachable by server-to-server HTTP requests. If your site uses Cloudflare, a WAF, bot protection, captchas, browser challenges, or login redirects, bypass those protections only for the webhook path and verify requests with the X-Signature HMAC header.

For the complete first integration, start with the Quickstart.