What Bitcoin is
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency network, running since 2009 from a design published by Satoshi Nakamoto. Nobody owns it: the software is open source, many developers work on it, and every user chooses which version to run. Miners add a block about every ten minutes on average using proof of work, and each new block makes the ones before it harder to change.
Bitcoin has no accounts. A balance is a set of unspent outputs of earlier transactions, and a payment spends some of them and creates new ones, which shapes how deposits are found and withdrawals are built. Exchanges, brokers, payment companies and custodians hold and move bitcoin for their customers, and it is one of the chains our custody module supports.
What it does in your platform
Custody & wallets
Gives each customer their own Bitcoin deposit address, finds incoming payments in new blocks and credits them once they have the confirmations your rules ask for. Withdrawals are built from your wallet's unspent outputs and signed under policy, by your custody provider or your own keys.
How the connection works
The module reads Bitcoin through your own Bitcoin node or a node provider, and signs through your custody provider or your own keys. Bitcoin works differently from the EVM chains, so it has its own connector.
A fresh address
The module gives the customer a Bitcoin address of their own, and your app shows it.
In the next block
A miner includes the payment in a block, and the module sees a new output paying that address.
Confirmations add up
Each block mined on top adds a confirmation, and the deposit counts once it has the number your rules set.
Screened and credited
The deposit is screened and credited to the customer, and the movement appears in the backoffice.
A withdrawal built
After limits, screening and approvals, a transaction is built from your wallet's unspent outputs, with change back to the wallet, and signed.
Broadcast and reconciled
The signed transaction is broadcast, by your custody provider or through your node or node provider, and the module reconciles it once it is confirmed.
Next to other chains
Bitcoin runs next to the other chains in the module under the same policies, approvals, screening and reconciliation. What differs is the address, the confirmation rule, the node access and, on Bitcoin, the way withdrawals are built from unspent outputs.
Not every node provider serves Bitcoin: QuickNode and Alchemy do, Infura does not, and your own Bitcoin node is always an option. The ledger keeps bitcoin as its own currency, so it never mixes with assets on other chains.
When Bitcoin fits best
A strong fit when
- Your customers want to deposit, hold and withdraw bitcoin on your platform.
- You run a crypto exchange or a crypto card product and want bitcoin among its assets.
- You can work with blocks that come about every ten minutes and design deposits around confirmations.
Also worth a look
- A chain with faster blocks, such as Solana, Tron or an Ethereum layer 2, for small and frequent payments.
- Ethereum, if your customers want tokens and stablecoins as well as a base asset.
How we get you live
Node access
We connect the module to Bitcoin through your own Bitcoin node or a node provider such as QuickNode or Alchemy.
Custody support
We check that your custody provider supports Bitcoin and the address types you want, or set up your own keys for it.
Confirmation rules
We agree with you how many confirmations a deposit needs; bitcoin.org recommends at least six for high-value transfers.
A testnet run
The whole flow runs on testnet4, the successor to testnet3, from a deposit to a confirmed withdrawal, before real bitcoin moves.
