Build an online store with cryptocurrency payment support — get a wallet and some test coins
If you are a beginner with no coding experience at all but still interested in getting involved with cryptocurrency trends and setting up your own website, blog, or online store, then you have landed at the right place. This is the first section of a series.
What you’ll need
- No programming experience needed
- Some time, each session is about 20–30 mins
- No fee for building a test toy store locally
What you’ll learn
- API usage and other programming jargon
- Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency terminologies
- Website hosting and cloud deployment concepts
What you’ll build
- An online store with cryptocurrency, credit card, and PayPal payment support enabled
Section 1 — Get a wallet and some test coins
- What crypto currencies should I consider?
There are over 2,000 different types of coins listed on Coinmarketcap (https://coinmarketcap.com/). Which ones will prevail? Which group of coins will survive for the long term? What coin/token should you have now? If you are a merchant, which ones should you implement in your store?
These are tricky questions to answer. But from a beginner’s point of view, starting the game with a few popular ones, getting yourself in the playground first, learning the rules along the way is the best strategy.
For this tutorial, we will use bitcoin to give you a hands-on experience of both the customer’s and merchant’s side. Other coins can be integrated to your store in similar ways.
Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency in the world, and the philosophy used in building it applies to all other crypto derivatives.
(Youtube link :What is The History of Bitcoin: Super Easy Explanation https://youtu.be/khtCG_15bsY )
- What is a crypto wallet?
Like a wallet is needed to hold our cash, checks, and credit cards, a piece of software is needed to hold your crypto currencies. These applications are called crypto wallets. Besides showing how much coins you have, what transactions you have participated, some of them also offer other advanced features like exchange rates of different coins, email notifications of transactions, multiple wallet creation and management in-app, etc.
The default wallet we use in this tutorial is Electrum for bitcoin (https://electrum.org/). It supports test net of bitcoin.
For litecoin, electrum-ltc is a good one which supports litecoin’s test net (https://electrum-ltc.org/).
For ether tokens, myetherwallet for ether tokens(https://www.myetherwallet.com/ ) They will give you a taste of different wallets and they both support test nets, so no really money is needed for playing around.
(Youtube link: What is a Cryptocurrency Wallet? Simple To understand Video
Steps to set up a Electrum Bitcoin Wallet:
- Download the electrum wallet package for your operating system (https://electrum.org/#download) and start the installation process.
The following is on Linux Ubuntu.
Linux operating system is the most popular one among the developer community who write and share software for free, Mac OS X provides similar core functions these developers needed since it shared a common root with Linux. If you are a Windows user, it is super easy to add Ubuntu as a second operating system to your laptop by following the instructions provided by ubuntu, and get into the linux world and have fun (https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-install-ubuntu-desktop#0), or just search the Windows installation instructions accordingly.
You need to make the downloaded image executable by using the following command on Ubuntu (linux commands for beginners https://ryanstutorials.net/linuxtutorial/commandline.php ):
chmod +x electrum-3.3.6-x86_64.AppImage
And run the software
./electrum-3.3.6-x86_64.AppImage
Then click next, create a new wallet
2. Create a new seed and save the seed on paper. The seed is used for recovery of the wallet in case of computer failure or for transferring the wallet to another computer.
3.Create a new password. This is used to unlock your wallet.
4. Success and the main interface shows up.
Click Wallet from the header menu, then click the information tab. A pop-up shows up. This master public key will be used later to link your store with your wallet. To find public key for other wallets, please follow their official guides.
5. Whenever you request certain amount of coin, using the “Receiving address” or providing the QR code to the person
6. Interface for sending coins to others.
- Where can I get some test coins?
Testnets are copies of the blockchain almost identical in every way to the Mainnet except in the fact that their coin is worthless.They give developers, users, the community a chance to kick the tires before real assets are involved. We will use test coins in this tutorial.
Google for test nets or test coin faucet for the kind of cryptocurrencies. There are plenty of them. For example,
Bitcoin: https://coinfaucet.eu/en/btc-testnet/
Litecoin: https://tltc.bitaps.com/
Ethereum: https://faucet.kovan.network/
Steps to switch the wallet mode to testnet and get test bitcoins:
- Run the wallet in testnet mode through command line. First navigate to the directory where your AppImage is located, then type in the following command
./electrum-3.3.6-x86_64.AppImage — testnet
Create a new wallet for the testnet using the same steps above.
2. Go to Bitcoin testnet coin faucet to get coins.
Copy the Receiving address from the Receive tab and paste it to
https://coinfaucet.eu/en/btc-testnet/ testnet3 address bar, click ‘Get bitcoins’ button.
3. The website will show the coins are sent, and check your wallet Addresses tab or History tab to see the test coins transactions are marked on the testnet blockchain and waiting to be confirmed. The remaining step is just wait until it is fully confirmed then you have test coins to play with!
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