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| ## Current build status | ||
|
|
||
| [](https://travis-ci.org/gary-rowe/MultiBitMerchant) | ||
|
|
||
| ## The vision | ||
| MultiBit Merchant is trading, reinvented. It is designed to minimise the amount of time you have to spend looking after it - most of it is fully automatic. It is intended to free you from a traditional working life and introduce you to a different approach. | ||
|
|
||
| ## What is it? | ||
| MultiBit Merchant is a complete online merchant platform designed for use with Bitcoin, an internet currency that has many unique features. To find out more about Bitcoin [you should visit LoveBitcoins.org](http://lovebitcoins.org) which provides a lot of useful introductory information. | ||
|
|
||
| MultiBit Merchant is part of the MultiBit ecosystem of applications to help build the infrastructure of the Bitcoin economy. To find out more [you should visit MultiBit.org](http://multibit.org) | ||
|
|
||
| ## What can I do with it? | ||
| There are many possibilities, but here are a few that have been designed for: | ||
| * Trying out a new entrepreneurial idea without having to register and pay for a payment gateway subscription first | ||
| * Running an online shop (sell your stuff direct to a global market for bitcoins) | ||
| * Running an online fulfilment house (take online orders and send fulfilment orders to your local distribution team) | ||
| * Paying developers to contribute to your open source project (every successful pull gets a Bitcoin bounty) | ||
| * Providing a paid-for upload/share/download service (get paid for helping people share stuff) | ||
| * Providing a cost-effective platform from which a group of local businesses can reach their customers (help your local takeaways provide a combined service, scale this up to more towns) | ||
| * Providing a Bitcoin paywall for your premium blog content (provide temporary access to an article for download) | ||
| * Running an international escrow service (act as a trusted third party to facilitate international trade between small businesses) | ||
| * Providing a last minute booking or reservation service offering zero chargeback risk to suppliers that could include airlines, hotels, holiday home rentals etc. | ||
|
|
||
| ## Features for merchants | ||
| * Instant set up and operation - no registration | ||
| * Very low transaction costs (*much* lower than credit cards or PayPal) | ||
| * No chargebacks | ||
| * Instant payment settlement (just like cash) | ||
| * Inexpensive to operate (server running costs and an SSL certificate [free from StartSSL] are all that is required) | ||
| * No registration required (anyone, anywhere can use it) | ||
| * Secure by design (no private keys on server) | ||
| * Simple to configure | ||
| * Fast bulk upload of catalogue items (as descriptions, or as digital products) | ||
| * Online order processing (customers can make their orders and review them later) | ||
| * Online delivery processing (you receive updates on new orders and fulfilments) | ||
| * Online fulfilment for digital products (sell your music right now) | ||
| * Online accounting in bitcoins to 8dp (reports can be sent direct to you and your accountant covering all aspects of the business operations) | ||
| * Social network support (you and your customers can receive updates through email, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and so on) | ||
| * Multiple languages supported (for your site and your products) | ||
|
|
||
| ## Features for IT specialists | ||
| * Designed for long-term reliable automatic operation | ||
| * Main platform runs as a standalone web application on a Java6 JVM (no application container required) | ||
| * All requests and responses are stateless and cached | ||
| * All components designed to scale horizontally to allow larger sites to scale up and down as necessary | ||
| * Support for encrypted offsite backups and restores and schema updates | ||
| * Restricted administration access | ||
|
|
||
| ## Which branch? | ||
| Use `master` for the latest production release. Use `develop` for the latest release candidate. | ||
|
|
||
| At present, given the alpha nature of the project it is best to start with `develop`. | ||
|
|
||
| ## Bitcoinj dependency is broken - for good reasons | ||
|
|
||
| The current Bitcoinj library is not available through a standard Nexus repository for security reasons. | ||
|
|
||
| Before you think that this is some rubbish that you can safely ignore please bear in mind that Bitcoinj is a | ||
| financial library that is *capable of spending real money*. You want to be sure that no-one between you and their | ||
| repository has an opportunity to change the code. Further, you want to be sure that any of the libraries that it | ||
| pulls in have not been corrupted (a "build side-chain attack"). | ||
|
|
||
| The best way to ensure that you have the correct Bitcoinj library is to build it locally on a trusted machine and then | ||
| deploy it to a trusted repository under your control. To accomplish this, you should [follow the Bitcoinj build instructions](https://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/wiki/UsingMaven). | ||
|
|
||
| Essentially, at this stage you will need to perform a git checkout to a particular revision denoted by a hash. This will | ||
| ensure that no code before this point has been modified. This approach is more secure than the current Maven dependency | ||
| download implementation. However plans are in place to re-introduce Bitcoinj into the Maven Central process in a more | ||
| secure manner. | ||
|
|
||
| If you would like to sponsor the effort to make this a reality, please contact me. | ||
|
|
||
| ## Getting started | ||
| Assuming that you're familiar with Bitcoin and the benefits that it can bring to your online business venture, | ||
| then your next step depends on your technical background. | ||
|
|
||
| [Installation instructions for merchants](https://github.com/gary-rowe/MultiBitMerchant/wiki/Getting-started-for-merchants) | ||
|
|
||
| [Installation instructions for developers](https://github.com/gary-rowe/MultiBitMerchant/wiki/Getting-started-for-developers) | ||
| ## Current build status | ||
|
|
||
| [](https://travis-ci.org/gary-rowe/MultiBitMerchant) | ||
|
|
||
| ## The vision | ||
| MultiBit Merchant is trading, reinvented. It is designed to minimise the amount of time you have to spend looking after it - most of it is fully automatic. It is intended to free you from a traditional working life and introduce you to a different approach. | ||
|
|
||
| ## What is it? | ||
| MultiBit Merchant is a complete online merchant platform designed for use with Bitcoin, an internet currency that has many unique features. To find out more about Bitcoin [you should visit LoveBitcoins.org](http://lovebitcoins.org) which provides a lot of useful introductory information. | ||
|
|
||
| MultiBit Merchant is part of the MultiBit ecosystem of applications to help build the infrastructure of the Bitcoin economy. To find out more [you should visit MultiBit.org](http://multibit.org) | ||
|
|
||
| ## What can I do with it? | ||
|
|
||
| There are many possibilities, but here are a few that have been designed for: | ||
|
|
||
| * Trying out a new entrepreneurial idea without having to register and pay for a payment gateway subscription first | ||
| * Running an online shop (sell your stuff direct to a global market for bitcoins) | ||
| * Running an online fulfilment house (take online orders and send fulfilment orders to your local distribution team) | ||
| * Paying developers to contribute to your open source project (every successful pull gets a Bitcoin bounty) | ||
| * Providing a paid-for upload/share/download service (get paid for helping people share stuff) | ||
| * Providing a cost-effective platform from which a group of local businesses can reach their customers (help your local takeaways provide a combined service, scale this up to more towns) | ||
| * Providing a Bitcoin paywall for your premium blog content (provide temporary access to an article for download) | ||
| * Running an international escrow service (act as a trusted third party to facilitate international trade between small businesses) | ||
| * Providing a last minute booking or reservation service offering zero chargeback risk to suppliers that could include airlines, hotels, holiday home rentals etc. | ||
|
|
||
| ## Features for merchants | ||
|
|
||
| Bitcoin offers many advantages, particularly in the area of international payments. MultiBit Merchant is intended to | ||
| help you build up Bitcoin-only supply chains so that you can run your entire business using Bitcoin. | ||
|
|
||
| * Instant set up and operation - no registration | ||
| * Very low transaction costs (*much* lower than credit cards or PayPal) | ||
| * No chargebacks | ||
| * Instant payment settlement (just like cash) | ||
| * Inexpensive to operate (server running costs and an SSL certificate [free from StartSSL] are all that is required) | ||
| * No registration required (anyone, anywhere can use it) | ||
| * Secure by design (no private keys on server) | ||
| * Simple to configure | ||
| * Fast bulk upload of catalogue items (as descriptions, or as digital products) | ||
| * Online order processing (customers can make their orders and review them later) | ||
| * Online delivery processing (you receive updates on new orders and fulfilments) | ||
| * Online fulfilment for digital products (sell your music right now) | ||
| * Online accounting in bitcoins to 8dp (reports can be sent direct to you and your accountant covering all aspects of the business operations) | ||
| * Social network support (you and your customers can receive updates through email, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and so on) | ||
| * Multiple languages supported (for your site and your products) | ||
|
|
||
| ## Features for IT specialists | ||
|
|
||
| * Designed for long-term reliable automatic operation | ||
| * Main platform runs as a standalone web application on a Java6 JVM (no application container required) | ||
| * All requests and responses are stateless and cached | ||
| * All components designed to scale horizontally to allow larger sites to scale up and down as necessary | ||
| * Support for encrypted offsite backups and restores and schema updates | ||
| * Restricted administration access | ||
|
|
||
| ## Which branch? | ||
|
|
||
| Use `master` for the latest production release. Use `develop` for the latest release candidate. | ||
|
|
||
| At present, given the pre-alpha nature of the project it is best to start with `develop` until the 0.1.0 milestone is | ||
| reached. | ||
|
|
||
| ## Which version? | ||
|
|
||
| The version numbers follow the usual Maven patter of Major(x).Minor(y).Revision(z) and should be interpreted as: | ||
|
|
||
| z - covers a bug fix that does not affect any public facing API | ||
| y - a new feature or bug fix that affects the public facing API | ||
| x - a major update that involves a complete rewrite and breaking changes all round | ||
|
|
||
| To cover the early work where everything is all up in air, the following can be used to determine how stable the | ||
| current release is: | ||
|
|
||
| 0.0.z - Pre-alpha. Expect bugs and major rewrites of everything. | ||
| 0.1.z - Alpha. Expect bugs, but it should sort of look OK and have most technology in place. | ||
| 0.y.z - Beta. Expect minor bugs, and a good user experience overall. | ||
| 1.y.z - Release. Should be fully operational and fit for customers to use. | ||
|
|
||
| ## Bitcoinj dependency is broken - for good reasons | ||
|
|
||
| The current Bitcoinj library is not available through a standard Nexus repository for security reasons. | ||
|
|
||
| Before you think that this is some rubbish that you can safely ignore please bear in mind that Bitcoinj is a | ||
| financial library that is *capable of spending real money*. You want to be sure that no-one between you and their | ||
| repository has an opportunity to change the code. Further, you want to be sure that any of the libraries that it | ||
| pulls in have not been corrupted (a "[dependency-chain attack](http://gary-rowe.com/agilestack/2013/07/03/preventing-dependency-chain-attacks-in-maven/)"). | ||
|
|
||
| The best way to ensure that you have the correct Bitcoinj library is to build it locally on a trusted machine and then | ||
| deploy it to a trusted repository under your control. To accomplish this, you should [follow the Bitcoinj build instructions](https://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/wiki/UsingMaven). | ||
|
|
||
| ### Latest update | ||
|
|
||
| The [BitcoinJ Enforcer Rules](https://github.com/gary-rowe/BitcoinjEnforcerRules) project provides the necessary | ||
| protection so that you can include BitcoinJ directly in your Maven projects using the traditional approach. However, | ||
| due to time constraints it is not yet available. | ||
|
|
||
| ## Getting started | ||
| Assuming that you're familiar with Bitcoin and the benefits that it can bring to your online business venture, | ||
| then your next step depends on your technical background. | ||
|
|
||
| [Installation instructions for merchants](https://github.com/gary-rowe/MultiBitMerchant/wiki/Getting-started-for-merchants) | ||
|
|
||
| [Installation instructions for developers](https://github.com/gary-rowe/MultiBitMerchant/wiki/Getting-started-for-developers) |