Crypto donation system development

Development of Crypto Donation System

The task seems simple on the surface: accept crypto from a donor. But this flow immediately raises several non-trivial questions — how to show status in real time, how to work with different networks and tokens, what to do with dust after gas fees, and how not to lose a donation during network reorg.

Minimal viable scheme

For single or low-volume donation streams, complex infrastructure is unnecessary. Scheme with one address:

1. Publish one address (ETH/BTC/SOL) on the page
2. Webhook monitoring via provider (Alchemy Notify, Moralis Streams, QuickNode Streams)
3. Webhook triggers backend → updates donor UI in real-time

// Alchemy Notify webhook handler
app.post('/webhook/donations', express.raw({type: 'application/json'}), async (req, res) => {
    const isValid = verifyAlchemySignature(req.body, req.headers['x-alchemy-signature'], WEBHOOK_SECRET)
    if (!isValid) return res.sendStatus(401)

    const payload = JSON.parse(req.body.toString())

    for (const activity of payload.event?.activity || []) {
        if (activity.toAddress.toLowerCase() === DONATION_ADDRESS.toLowerCase() && activity.value > 0) {
            await db.donations.create({
                txHash: activity.hash,
                fromAddress: activity.fromAddress,
                amount: activity.value,
                asset: activity.asset,
                status: 'pending'
            })
            io.emit('new_donation', { amount: activity.value, asset: activity.asset })
        }
    }
    res.sendStatus(200)
})

Webhooks are more reliable than polling: Alchemy/QuickNode retry delivery on failure, and you won't miss a transaction.

Confirmations: when to count a donation as received

Don't count a donation as final on first notification. For ETH mainnet — minimum 6 confirmations, for L2 (Arbitrum, Base, Optimism) — 1–2 is sufficient (L2 finality is faster, reorgs rare). For BTC — 1 confirmation for small amounts, 3+ for large.

Status machine for donation:

• detected — transaction in mempool
• confirming — included in block, waiting for confirmations
• confirmed — reached required confirmations, donation counted
• failed — reorg or dropped transaction

Widget for streamers / real-time alerts

Most common scenario: streamer wants to receive crypto donations with pop-up alert in OBS. Architecture:

Blockchain → Webhook Provider → Backend API → WebSocket (Socket.io) → OBS Browser Source

Widget — HTML page with WebSocket connection:

<!-- OBS Browser Source URL: https://yourapp.com/widget?streamer_id=123 -->
<script>
const socket = io('wss://yourapp.com')
socket.on('donation', (data) => {
    showDonationAlert(data.sender, data.amount, data.currency, data.message)
})
</script>

Multi-currency without extra complexity

For a small system — accept USDC/USDT on multiple networks plus native ETH. This covers 90% of audience. Give donors choice of network — ETH mainnet, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon — this lowers barrier (gas on L2 is cheaper).

Identify donation by network + address + token:

def identify_donation(network: str, token: str, amount: float, tx_hash: str) -> Donation:
    usd_value = convert_to_usd(token, amount, network)
    return Donation(
        tx_hash=tx_hash,
        network=network,
        token=token,
        raw_amount=amount,
        usd_value=usd_value,
        confirmed=False
    )

Complete system with real-time widget, multi-network receipt and dashboard: 3–5 days development.