Receive Descriptors and Extended Public Keys

Manatee can derive a fresh receiving address for each payment from read-only wallet data. This is usually better than reusing one Bitcoin address for many orders.

Why fresh addresses matter

Fresh addresses improve order reconciliation and on-chain privacy. Each payment gets its own address, so your backend can connect a blockchain transaction to one payment request without guessing from amount and timing alone.

Receive descriptors

A receive descriptor is explicit wallet data that describes how receiving addresses should be derived. If your wallet can export a ranged receive descriptor, that is usually the cleanest format because it contains both the public key material and address type.

Extended public keys

Some wallets expose account-level public keys instead. On mainnet you may see xpub, ypub, or zpub; on testnet/Testnet4 you may see tpub, upub, or vpub.

Extended public keys are read-only. They cannot spend Bitcoin or reveal private keys. They can, however, reveal receiving addresses and incoming transaction history for the wallet account, so treat them as sensitive.

Production recommendation

Use a dedicated wallet account for Manatee payments. Do not export public wallet data from a personal wallet or treasury account. A dedicated payment account keeps the visible transaction history scoped to your checkout activity.

Manual destination addresses

For simple tests, your backend can create a payment with destination_address if your API key allows customer-provided addresses. For production checkout, descriptor-backed or extended-public-key-backed address derivation is usually safer and easier to reconcile.