Tool to integrate Monero in ecommerce Released

On Saturday, the 26th of November, 2022, Spirobel, a Twitter user, took to the platform to announce the release of a new tool he created, Monerochan Merchant RPC, which functions to enable Monero to be accepted as payment at the e-commerce business.

https://twitter.com/spirobel/status/1596299822516285440

Monero is a decentralized peer-to-peer digital currency that offers a high level of anonymity for users and their transactions.

A transaction on the Monero blockchain can not be linked to a particular user or real-world identity, as the cryptocurrency is fungible. This term describes a currency in which every unit is identical and mutually interchangeable with every other unit of that currency.

This makes Monero an unpopular currency with a lot of financial regulators as XMR payments cannot be traced and data on its users can neither be accessed nor collected. 

Before Monero can be accepted as part of an e-commerce business, what is the process? 

How can Monero be integrated into a website? A few basic parameters or issues need to be looked into/solved to achieve this.

First, a unique address needs to be created for every customer and every product intended for purchase. Essentially an invoice needs to be made for every transaction. 

There Is a need for the presence of a code or product with the ability to determine when a Monero payment has been received at the merchant address to subsequently have it compared to the payment id (or integrated address) the e-commerce system generates.

Second, the exchange rate needs to be converted from XMR to the fiat currency of the customer. 

The Monerochan Merchant RPC basically functions to solve these issues. It consists of an interactive  API Docs page that essentially enables curl commands to be fired. The website tells the merchant API how much Monero is needed and what address it should be deposited into.

Spirobel created Monerochan Merchant RPC using Caxa, which turns a node app into a binary. Express-OpenAPI-Balidator functions to make the OpenAPI file the single source of truth. And an integrated Monero JavaScript library for increased privacy and control.