So, you want to try something new when it comes to online payment methods? And you wish to set up a cryptocurrency payment processor? If you answered yes to both, this article will pique your interest and provide some pointers to help you get started.
So, what are we waiting for? Let’s begin!
Make a mental note of everything you’ve learned so far about crypto currencies and attempt to grasp the fundamental principles. This is the most crucial advice to provide since knowing the basics may help you avoid making mistakes like creating your app without factoring in gas amount and price and then having to reorganize everything to make it more practical. As a result, do your homework.
After spending some time researching the moment for building the app arrives. Node.js offers an interesting and useful library called web3 which is a set of libraries that let you use HTTP, IPC, or WebSocket to communicate with a local or distant Ethereum node. This allows you to establish a connection with a crypto wallet, initiate transactions, create contract instances and much more. It has a vast documentation covering all you need to know about its methods, where and how to call them. Here’s a link to that.
Yes, you will need a wallet to test your application and MetaMask is my recommendation. It’s easy to use, and their instructions will walk you through setting up a link between your app and your wallet. It can work on multiple test networks which will be covered next and has great compatibility with web3 library making it easy to set up and use programmatically. Also, don’t forget to keep track of your account’s private key otherwise if you forget your password, you’ll have to create a new account, and all of your test Ethereum will be lost.
To test the application without spending money, there are various test networks you may explore, such as Rinkeby and Ropsten, both of which are online and include Ethereum “faucets” that will supply you with some Ethereum for testing, or you could create your own Ethereum blockchain using Ganache which is only local. You’ll be able to set your own gas price, manage transactions, and keep track of your fees this way. It’s more helpful to use online test networks since more people will be able to test your work with their own wallets.
If you wish to carry out more complicated transactions, you’ll need a smart contract. The amount of complexity is determined by the contract’s purpose and the reasoning that underpins it. Remember that the more complicated a contract is, the more gas it will use. Remix is a useful application to consider while creating smart contracts. It will figure out how much it will cost to deploy the contract and to call its functions. To implement the contract using web3 you will need its ABI which can be obtained from Remix after compilation, and its address on the blockchain after deployment.
Or, you know, you could ask us for help. We know a thing or two about web-development and crypto.
