Bitcart

Bitcart is a self‑hosted, open‑source cryptocurrency payment platform that abstracts the complexities of multi‑coin wallet management, checkout flows, and merchant APIs. It exposes a unified RESTful interface that lets merchants accept over 50 cryptocurrencies—including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, BNB, MATIC, USDT, USDC, and many others—without exposing private keys or incurring transaction fees. The core of Bitcart is written in Python 3 and leverages the FastAPI framework for high‑performance, asynchronous request handling. Business logic is split across micro‑services: a daemon layer that manages wallet connections, an admin panel for configuration and analytics, and a store front for checkout flows.

Technical Stack & Architecture

• Language & Frameworks

  • Python 3.10+ (asyncio, type‑hints)
  • FastAPI for the merchant API and admin UI endpoints
  • SQLAlchemy + Alembic for ORM and migrations
  • Celery (Redis broker) for background jobs such as transaction monitoring and webhook dispatch

• Databases

  • PostgreSQL (primary) for transactional data, user accounts, and configuration.
  • Redis for caching, rate limiting, and Celery task queue.

• Wallet Connectivity

  • bitcart-sdk: a lightweight Python library that connects to node RPCs or third‑party APIs for each supported coin.
  • bitccl: a domain‑specific scripting language that allows merchants to declaratively define checkout flows, including multi‑step approvals and conditional logic.

• Deployment

  • Docker is the first‑class deployment method. The bitcart-docker repository contains a multi‑service Compose file that bundles the daemon, admin panel, and store front.
  • Kubernetes manifests are available for production‑grade scaling; each service can be horizontally scaled independently.

• Extensibility

  • Plugins are first‑class citizens. The admin panel exposes a plugin marketplace where developers can drop in Python modules that hook into the event bus (e.g., on_payment_success, on_invoice_expired).
  • Webhooks are emitted for every state change, allowing external systems to react in real time.
  • The BitCCL language can be extended with custom functions, enabling complex business rules without touching the core codebase.

Core Capabilities for Developers

Deployment & Infrastructure

Bitcart is designed to run on any Linux server with Docker or Kubernetes. The minimal resource footprint (≈ 200 MiB RAM for the daemon, 300 MiB for the admin panel) makes it suitable for hobbyist setups and small businesses. For high‑traffic merchants, the daemon can be horizontally scaled behind a load balancer; each instance shares state via PostgreSQL and Redis. The Docker images are multi‑arch (amd64, arm64), ensuring compatibility with Raspberry Pi or edge devices.

Integration & Extensibility

• Plugin System – Developers can write pure Python plugins that register callbacks on the event bus. The plugin repository (bitcart-admin) provides a template and documentation for creating new modules.
• Webhooks – Every significant event (payment received, invoice expired, balance update) triggers a JSON payload to registered URLs. This facilitates integration with accounting software, CRM systems, or custom dashboards.
• SDKs – The bitcart-sdk library offers a programmatic interface to wallet operations, enabling developers to build custom front‑ends or integrate Bitcart into existing e‑commerce stacks.
• BitCCL Scripting – The custom scripting language allows declarative checkout flows, making it possible to define complex multi‑step payment logic without writing imperative code.

Developer Experience

• Documentation – The official docs (docs.bitcart.ai) cover API reference, SDK usage, plugin development, and deployment guides. The docs repository is a separate GitHub project with CI‑checked Markdown.
• Community & Support – Active channels on Discord, Telegram, Matrix, and GitHub Discussions provide quick help. The project follows open‑source contribution guidelines with a clear CONTRIBUTING.md.
• Configuration – Environment variables control node URLs, database connections, and feature flags. The admin panel offers a UI for runtime configuration changes.
• Testing & CI – CircleCI runs unit tests, integration tests, and code coverage checks. The repository includes a Codecov badge indicating high test coverage.

Use Cases