When a customer pays a Cryptain invoice, the money has to land somewhere. You choose where, store by store, and the choice changes more than you might think.
Balance settlement
The customer pays to an address Cryptain controls. Once the payment is confirmed, your balance in that coin goes up by the amount, less the plan fee.
Good for: getting started without setting up a wallet, running refunds and mass payouts from one place, and keeping many small payments together before moving them.
Trade-off: until you withdraw, Cryptain holds the funds for you. Withdraw on a schedule or turn on auto-withdraw at a threshold so balances never grow larger than you are comfortable with.
Own-wallet settlement
The customer pays straight to an address that belongs to you. You give Cryptain either a list of addresses or an extended public key (xpub, ypub or zpub), and a fresh address is derived for each invoice. Cryptain watches the blockchain and confirms the payment, but never holds the funds and never sees your private keys.
Good for: larger volumes, businesses that do not want a third party holding revenue, and anyone who already runs a hardware or multi-signature wallet.
Trade-off: refunds and payouts are sent from your own wallet, and keeping your keys safe is entirely your job.
Side by side
| Balance | Own wallet | |
|---|---|---|
| Who holds the funds | Cryptain, until you withdraw | You, from the first second |
| Setup | None | Add addresses or an xpub per network |
| Refunds and payouts | From the dashboard | From your wallet |
| Withdrawal network fee | Yes, when you withdraw | None |
| Lose your password | Reset it with 2FA | No effect on funds |
| Lose your seed phrase | No effect on funds | Funds are gone |
A sensible way to use both
Many businesses start on balance settlement, then move their main store to their own wallet once volumes grow, while keeping a smaller store on balance for refunds and payouts. You can switch a store at any time in Stores → Edit settings → Where should payments go?. Open invoices keep the settlement they were created with.
Whatever you choose, never type your seed phrase into any website, including ours. Own-wallet settlement only ever needs public information.