BitPay for Webservices API

BitPay is an American bitcoin payment service provider. When selecting BitPay, customers will be presented with an invoice for the transaction. To proceed, the customer clicks the button provided to open their wallet and finalise the payment. Once completed, the customer will be redirected back to your website, and you will receive confirmation via a URL notification.

Supported customer countries	No restrictions on customer countries
Supported currencies	EUR, GBP, USD
Refunds	Refunds not supported.
Chargebacks	Payments are not subject to chargebacks.
Zero-authorisation	Not supported.
Recurring payments	Not supported.

Configuration

To enable BitPay on your account, please get in touch with your account manager.
A test sandbox account will be provided, which you will need when testing your implementation.

Process overview

Initiate the customer
- Customer agrees to a payment using BitPay on the merchant’s website.
- Merchant submits AUTH request to initiate the session, including the successfulurlredirect and errorurlredirect.
- Merchant receives AUTH response, including redirecturl.
Redirect to BitPay
- Merchant redirects the customer’s browser to the redirecturl.
- Customer follows instructions on BitPay's hosted pages to authorise the payment.
- If successful, the browser is redirected to the successfulurlredirect, a page hosted by the merchant that displays confirmation of payment.
- If there has been a problem with the payment, the browser is redirected to the errorurlredirect, a page hosted by the merchant that displays an error to the customer.
Payment completion
- At a later time, BitPay will contact Trust Payments with confirmation that funds have been settled.
- Trust Payments will submit a URL notification to the merchant’s system to confirm funds have settled.
- Merchant receives the notification and responds to inform Trust Payments the notification was received successfully.

1. Initiate the customer

When the customer chooses to pay with BitPay, your system will need to perform an AUTH request and, if successful, redirect the customer’s browser to the URL returned in the response.

AUTH request

The example request below is for a BitPay AUTH request:

#!/usr/bin/python
import securetrading

stconfig = securetrading.Config()
stconfig.username = "webservices@example.com"
stconfig.password = "Password1^"
st = securetrading.Api(stconfig)

auth = {
  "currencyiso3a": "GBP",
  "requesttypedescription": "AUTH",
  "accounttypedescription": "ECOM",
  "sitereference": "test_site12345",
  "baseamount": "1050",
  "paymenttypedescription": "BITPAY",
  "successfulurlredirect": "https://yourwebsite.com",
  "errorurlredirect": "https://yourwebsite.com",
  "billingfirstname": "Joe",
  "billinglastname": "Bloggs",
  "billingcountryiso2a": "GB"
}

strequest = securetrading.Request()
strequest.update(auth)
stresponse = st.process(strequest) #stresponse contains the transaction response

<?php

if (!($autoload = realpath(__DIR__ . '/../../../autoload.php')) && !($autoload = realpath(__DIR__ . '/../vendor/autoload.php'))) {
throw new Exception('Composer autoloader file could not be found.');
}
require_once($autoload);

$configData = array(
  'username' => 'webservices@example.com',
  'password' => 'Password1^'
);

$requestData = array(
  'currencyiso3a' => 'GBP',
  'requesttypedescription' => 'AUTH',
  'accounttypedescription' => 'ECOM',
  'sitereference' => 'test_site12345',
  'baseamount' => '1050',
  'paymenttypedescription' => 'BITPAY',
  'successfulurlredirect' => 'https://yourwebsite.com',
  'errorurlredirect' => 'https://yourwebsite.com',
  'billingfirstname' => 'Joe',
  'billinglastname' => 'Bloggs',
  'billingcountryiso2a' => 'GB'
);

$api = \Securetrading\api($configData);
$response = $api->process($requestData);
var_dump($response->toArray());

?>

curl --user webservices@example.com:Password1^ <DOMAIN>/json/ -H "Content-type: application/json" -H "Accept: application/json" -X POST -d '{
  "alias": "webservices@example.com",
  "version": "1.00",
  "request": [{
    "currencyiso3a": "GBP",
    "requesttypedescription": "AUTH",
    "accounttypedescription": "ECOM",
    "sitereference": "test_site12345",
    "baseamount": "1050",
    "paymenttypedescription": "BITPAY",
    "successfulurlredirect": "https://www.example.com/success",
    "errorurlredirect": "https://www.example.com/error",
    "billingfirstname": "Joe",
    "billinglastname": "Bloggs",
    "billingcountryiso2a": "GB"
  }]
}'

{
  "alias":"webservices@example.com",
  "version":"1.00",
  "request":[{
    "currencyiso3a":"GBP",
    "requesttypedescription":"AUTH",
    "accounttypedescription":"ECOM",
    "sitereference":"test_site12345",
    "baseamount":"1050",
    "paymenttypedescription":"BITPAY",
    "successfulurlredirect":"https://www.example.com/success",
    "errorurlredirect":"https://www.example.com/error",
    "billingfirstname":"Joe",
    "billinglastname":"Bloggs",
    "billingcountryiso2a":"GB"
  }]
}

<requestblock version="3.67">
  <alias>webservices@example.com</alias>
  <request type="AUTH">
    <merchant>
      <successfulurlredirect>https://www.example.com/success</successfulurlredirect>
      <errorurlredirect>https://www.example.com/error</errorurlredirect>
    </merchant>
    <billing>
      <name>
        <first>Joe</first>
        <last>Bloggs</last>
      </name>
      <country>GB</country>
      <amount currencycode="GBP">1050</amount>
      <payment type="BITPAY"/>
    </billing>
    <operation>
      <sitereference>test_site12345</sitereference>
      <accounttypedescription>ECOM</accounttypedescription>
    </operation>
  </request>
</requestblock>

Replace <DOMAIN> with a supported domain. Click here for a full list.

Field specification

Field	Format	Description
accounttypedescription XPath: /operation/accounttypedescription	Alpha (20)	Only “ECOM” (e-commerce) is supported.
baseamount XPath: /billing/amount	Numeric (13)	The amount of the transaction in base units, with no commas or decimal points, so €10 is submitted as 1000. This value must be greater than zero. (Max length may vary depending on your acquiring bank – Contact your bank for further info)
billingcountryiso2a XPath: /billing/country	Alpha (2)	The country for the customer’s billing address. This will need to be in ISO2A format. For a list of country codes supported by BitPay, refer to the list found at the top of this page.
currencyiso3a XPath: /billing/amount/@currencycode	Alpha (3)	The currency that the transaction will be processed in (in ISO3A format). For a list of currency codes supported by BitPay, refer to the list found at the top of this page.
errorurlredirect XPath: /merchant/errorurlredirect	URL (2048)	The URL that the customer will be returned to following an error on the BitPay-hosted pages.
paymenttypedescription XPath: /billing/payment/@type	Alpha (20)	This value must be submitted as “BITPAY”.
requesttypedescription XPath: /@type	Alpha (20)	The value in the request must be “AUTH”.
sitereference XPath: /operation/sitereference	Alphanumeric & underscore (50)	The site reference relates to your individual account which you received on setup. If you do not know your site reference, please contact our Support Team.
successfulurlredirect XPath: /merchant/successfulurlredirect	URL (2048)	The URL that the customer will be returned to following a successful authorisation by BitPay.
billingprefixname XPath: /billing/name/prefix	Alphanumeric including symbols (25)	The prefix of the customer’s billing name (e.g. Mr, Miss, Dr). At least one of the billing name fields is required.
billingfirstname XPath: /billing/name/first	Alphanumeric including symbols (127)	The customer’s billing first name. At least one of the billing name fields is required.
billingmiddlename XPath: /billing/name/middle	Alphanumeric including symbols (127)	The customer’s billing middle name(s). At least one of the billing name fields is required.
billinglastname XPath: /billing/name/last	Alphanumeric including symbols (127)	The customer’s billing last name. At least one of the billing name fields is required.
billingsuffixname XPath: /billing/name/suffix	Alphanumeric including symbols (25)	The suffix of the customer’s billing name (e.g. Bsc). At least one of the billing name fields is required.
orderreference XPath: /merchant/orderreference	Alphanumeric including symbols (25) Recommended length 25 characters or less (exact length dependent on acquiring bank). Failure to adhere to this requirement may result in the text being truncated in the transaction.	Your unique order reference that can be stored on the Trust Payments system.

AUTH response

{
u'requestreference': u'An3ug1kap',
u'version': u'1.00',
u'responses': [{
u'transactionreference': u'23-86-113',
u'merchantname': u'Test Merchant',
u'paymenttypedescription': u'BITPAY',
u'settleduedate': u'2017-03-16',
u'baseamount': u'1050',
u'transactionstartedtimestamp': u'2017-03-16 16:25:08',
u'errormessage': u'Ok',
u'settlestatus': u'10',
u'accounttypedescription': u'ECOM',
u'errorcode': u'0',
u'redirecturl': u'https://example.com',
u'acquirertransactionreference': u'12',
u'acquirersecret': u'q9gy5ppgdyd5fh60kfe2j0f26peu2xww',
u'requesttypedescription': u'AUTH',
u'acquirerresponsemessage': u'PENDING',
u'operatorname': u'webservices@example.com',
u'livestatus': u'0',
u'currencyiso3a': GBP'
}]
}

array(3) {
  ["requestreference"] => string(9) "A0345jmuw"
  ["version"] => string(4) "1.00"
  ["responses"] => array(1) {
    [0] => array(18) {
      ["transactionreference"] => string(9) "23-86-113"
      ["merchantname"] => string(4) "Test Merchant"
      ["paymenttypedescription"] => string(10) "BITPAY"
      ["settleduedate"] => string(10) "2017-03-16"
      ["baseamount"] => string(4) "1050"
      ["transactionstartedtimestamp"] => string(19) "2017-03-16 16:25:08"
      ["errormessage"] => string(2) "Ok"
      ["settlestatus"] => string(2) "10"
      ["accounttypedescription"] => string(4) "ECOM"
      ["errorcode"] => string(1) "0"
      ["redirecturl"] => string(107) "https://example.com"
      ["acquirertransactionreference"] => string(2) "12"
      ["acquirersecret"] => string(32) "q9gy5ppgdyd5fh60kfe2j0f26peu2xww"
      ["requesttypedescription"] => string(4) "AUTH"
      ["acquirerresponsemessage"] => string(7) "PENDING"
      ["operatorname"] => string(11) "webservices@example.com"
      ["livestatus"] => string(1) "0"
      ["currencyiso3a"] => string(3) "GBP"
    }
  }
}

{
  "requestreference":"W23-fjgvn3d9",
  "version":"1.00",
  "response":[{
    "transactionreference":"23-86-113",
    "merchantname":"Test Merchant",
    "paymenttypedescription":"BITPAY",
    "settleduedate":"2017-03-16",
    "baseamount":"1050",
    "transactionstartedtimestamp":"2017-03-16 16:25:08",
    "errormessage":"Ok",
    "settlestatus":"10",
    "accounttypedescription":"ECOM",
    "errorcode":"0",
    "redirecturl":"https://example.com",
    "acquirertransactionreference":"12",
    "acquirersecret":"q9gy5ppgdyd5fh60kfe2j0f26peu2xww",
    "requesttypedescription":"AUTH",
    "acquirerresponsemessage":"PENDING",
    "operatorname":"webservices@example.com",
    "livestatus":"0",
    "currencyiso3a":"GBP"
  }]
}

<responseblock version="3.67">
  <requestreference>Xd4nk260v</requestreference>
  <response type="AUTH">
    <merchant>
      <merchantname>Test Merchant</merchantname>
      <operatorname>webservices@example.com</operatorname>
    </merchant>
    <transactionreference>44-86-102</transactionreference>
    <timestamp>2017-03-16 17:34:16</timestamp>
    <acquirersecret>gfc8mx0p2fx26f1n5tpy6mtk21naap8c</acquirersecret>
    <operation>
      <accounttypedescription>ECOM</accounttypedescription>
    </operation>
    <settlement>
      <settleduedate>2017-03-16</settleduedate>
      <settlestatus>10</settlestatus>
    </settlement>
    <acquirerresponsemessage>PENDING</acquirerresponsemessage>
    <billing>
      <amount currencycode="GBP">1050</amount>
      <payment type="BITPAY"/>
    </billing>
    <live>0</live>
    <other>
      <redirecturl>https://example.com</redirecturl>
    </other>
    <acquirertransactionreference>4</acquirertransactionreference>
    <error>
      <message>Ok</message>
      <code>0</code>
    </error>
  </response>
  <secrand>Z1W</secrand>
</responseblock>

Field specification

Field	Format	Description
accounttypedescription XPath: /operation/accounttypedescription	Alpha (20)	The value returned is “ECOM”.
acquirersecret XPath: /acquirersecret	Alphanumeric (64)	Used by Trust Payments to verify the response from the acquirer. (Your system does not need to verify this)
acquirertransactionreference XPath: /acquirertransactionreference	Alphanumeric including symbols (127)	Unique transaction reference assigned by BitPay.
baseamount XPath: /billing/amount	Numeric (13)	The amount of the transaction in base units, with no commas or decimal points, so €10 is returned as 1000.
currencyiso3a XPath: /billing/amount/@currencycode	Alpha (3)	The currency that the transaction was processed in (in ISO3A format). For a list of currency codes supported by BitPay, refer to the list found at the top of this page.
errorcode XPath: /error/code	Numeric (1-5)	The error code should be used to determine if the request was successful or not. If the error code is “0” then the transaction was successful. If the error code is not “0” then the transaction was not successful. Click here for a full list of errorcode and message values.
errormessage XPath: /error/message	Alphanumeric (255)	This is the corresponding message to the above code. Click here for a full list of errorcode and message values.
livestatus XPath: /live	Numeric (1)	0 – Transaction processed using a test account. 1 – Transaction processed using a live account.
operatorname XPath: /merchant/operatorname	Alphanumeric (255)	The value of this field contains the name of the user that processed the request.
paymenttypedescription XPath: /billing/payment/@type	Alpha (20)	This value returned is “BITPAY”.
redirecturl XPath: /other/redirecturl	URL (255)	Redirect the customer’s browser to this URL to allow them to complete the payment on BitPay's hosted pages.
requesttypedescription XPath: /@type	Alpha (20)	The value returned is “AUTH”.
settleduedate XPath: /settlement/settleduedate	Date YYYY-MM-DD	The date on which the transaction will be settled.
settlestatus XPath: /settlement/settlestatus	Numeric (3)	This allows you to determine the status of the payment. Refer to the Handling the response section below for information on how to best interpret this field.
transactionreference XPath: /transactionreference	Alphanumeric including hyphens (25)	A unique reference for the transaction assigned by Trust Payments.
transactionstartedtimestamp XPath: /timestamp	Date time YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss	The time the transaction was processed.
acquirerresponsemessage XPath: /acquirerresponsemessage	Alphanumeric (255)	Used by your acquirer to indicate the outcome of the request. This will vary depending on your acquiring bank. Please contact your bank for further information.
errordata XPath: /error/data	Alphanumeric (255)	Additional information to help troubleshoot the error. Only returned if there has been an error.
merchantname XPath: /merchant/merchantname	Alphanumeric (255)	These are details associated with the account used to process the transaction. To amend these fields, please contact our Support Team. Depends on your account configuration.

Handling the response

The settlestatus returned in the AUTH response is used to determine the status of the BitPay payment:

If the settlestatus is “10”, the payment is pending settlement

The funds have not yet been settled into your bank account.
The next step is to redirect the customer’s browser to the redirecturl to complete the payment.

Funds will not be settled into your account until the customer is redirected to BitPay's pages, in order to complete the payment. Read on for further information.

When there is an update to the settle status of the AUTH, you will receive a URL notification to inform you that the settlestatus has been updated to either “3” or “100”.
Further information on the notifications can be found below.

If the settlestatus is “3”, the payment has been cancelled

The payment has been declined, or has encountered an error.
To learn more about why the payment was unsuccessful, you will need to look at the errorcode. e.g. “70000” indicates that the payment was declined. Click here for a full list of error codes.

In addition to the above, we also recommend performing additional checks following payment.

2. Redirect to BitPay

Your system will need to redirect the customer’s browser to the redirecturl, which is a page hosted by BitPay, in order to process the payment.

Do not display the redirecturl within an iframe. This will prevent the content from being rendered correctly, and can ultimately prevent the payment from being completed successfully.

At a later time, the customer will be redirected back to either the successfulurlredirect or the errorurlredirect provided in the AUTH request.

If the customer is redirected to the successfulurlredirect:

The customer successfully completed the required steps on BitPay's pages.
Recommended actions: Display confirmation that the payment was successful.

If the customer is redirected to the errorurlredirect:

The customer encountered a problem that has prevented them from completing the payment.
Recommended actions: Inform the customer that there was a problem with the payment, displaying sufficient transaction details for the customer to query the payment attempt.

When testing, you will be displayed the sandbox as provided by BitPay. To complete a test transaction, you will need to follow the instructions displayed on screen. Please contact your account manager for test credentials to enter while on the sandbox.

3. Payment completion

Once the customer returns from the BitPay hosted page to either the successfulurlredirect or errorurlredirect hosted on your site, you will need to display either a confirmation or error message respectively.

Please check for any URL redirect rules that may be enabled in the Rule Manager on your site reference(s), as these may conflict and take precedence over the successfulurlredirect and errorurlredirect fields submitted in the AUTH request.

Once a payment has been authorised, funds will be settled at a later time, as determined by BitPay.

The settlement process for BitPay differs from the standard process followed with card-based payment methods.

The settlement notification may not be sent immediately after processing the AUTH

In the unlikely event that payment is still pending settlement after 7 days (settlestatus “10”), this will be scheduled for investigation and we will contact you with further information.

Before you begin testing, we recommend that you contact our Support Team and request that rules are enabled on your account, which submit URL notifications to your system in the following scenarios:

When a payment is authorised.
When funds have been settled.

Configuring the authorisation notification

We recommend including at least the following fields in your authorisation notification:

Acquirer Response Message (acquirerresponsemessage)
Base Amount (baseamount) (e.g. £10.50 is “1050”)*
Main Amount (mainamount) (e.g. £10.50 is “10.50”)*
Billing Country (billingcountryiso2a)
Currency (currencyiso3a)
Error Code (errorcode)
Live Status (livestatus)
Order Reference (orderreference)
Payment Type (paymenttypedescription)
Request Type (requesttypedescription)
Settle Status (settlestatus)
Site Reference (sitereference)
Transaction Reference (transactionreference)
Transaction Started Timestamp (transactionstartedtimestamp)

*Please choose your preferred format.

Configuring the settlement notification

We recommend including the following fields in your settlement notification:

Settle Status (settlestatus)
Site Reference (sitereference)
Transaction Reference (transactionreference)

Check the notification

You will need to check the contents of each notification received and respond accordingly by following the processes outlined in our URL notifications documentation. In particular, you will need to look at the updated settlestatus value:

On authorisation: If the settlestatus is “0”, “1” or “10”, the payment has been authorised and you are not required to take further action at this time. However, values of “2” or “3” indicate funds are not scheduled for settlement (suspended and cancelled, respectively).
On settlement: If the settlestatus has been updated to “100”, this indicates that the funds have been settled. Alternatively, if this has been updated to “3”, this indicates there has been a problem and the payment was subsequently cancelled.

Cancelled transactions (settlestatus “3”) may be settled at a later time. In situations where the customer has completed the steps required to fulfil the payment, the settlestatus is updated to “100” to indicate the funds have been transferred to your account.

If you have contacted the Support Team to configure settlement notifications (as described above), you will be notified when this occurs.

Testing

You will need to test your solution before you can begin processing live payments. Test transactions are processed through your test Site Reference.

Requirements

You will need to contact our Support Team, providing your BitPay test account details. We will then configure your test site reference to connect directly to the BitPay testing environment.

When performing test transactions, the redirect URL returned in the AUTH response will redirect your browser to the BitPay testing environment to simulate a payment. Other than this, the process will be exactly the same as processing live payments.

Further reading on this topic