Business-Managed Non-Custodial Bitcoin Wallets (Custody by Business)
Overview
Bitnob provides a managed Bitcoin RPC service that allows businesses to build Bitcoin custodial infrastructure for their users without ceding any control of the private keys.
In this model:
Businesses manage and control all private keys securely on their own infrastructure.
Bitnob provides the Bitcoin node infrastructure: address generation, transaction monitoring, broadcasting, and full blockchain query capabilities.
Bitnob never touches customer funds, cannot access private keys, and only relays blockchain information and transactions .
This allows you to build applications such as:
Bitcoin custodial wallets
Crypto neobanks
Bitcoin exchanges
Internal Bitcoin treasuries
Bitcoin payment processors
Explorers and analytics platforms
Core Concepts
| CONCEPTS | EXPLANATIONS |
|---|---|
| Managed Non-Custodial Wallets | You (the business) generate and store private keys. Users have accounts within your app. Bitnob only provides blockchain access. |
| Bitnob’s Role | Blockchain infrastructure: node connectivity, transaction relaying, address monitoring. Never key custody. |
| Signing Transactions | All signing operations happen on your backend. You control funds completely. |
| Supported Address Types | Legacy (P2PKH), Nested SegWit (P2SH), Native SegWit (P2WPKH), Taproot (P2TR). |
Primary Capabilities
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| Address Generation | Request new Bitcoin addresses (specify address type). |
| Transaction Broadcasting | Broadcast signed transactions (single or batch). |
| Address Monitoring | Set up webhooks to detect inbound transactions. |
| Balance Queries | Fetch confirmed and pending balances for addresses. |
| Transaction Queries | Fetch full transaction data from mempool or blockchain. |
| Fee Estimation | Get dynamic fee suggestions for fast, medium, or economical confirmations. |
| Explorer and Indexing | Perform full chain queries (blocks, transactions, addresses) if building explorer-style applications. |
API Endpoints
| Action | Method | Endpoint |
|---|---|---|
| Generate new address | POST | /api/v1/noncustodial/bitcoin/address/new |
| Watch address | POST | /api/v1/noncustodial/bitcoin/address/watch |
| Watch multiple addresses | POST | /api/v1/noncustodial/bitcoin/address/watch/bulk |
| Broadcast signed transaction | POST | /api/v1/noncustodial/bitcoin/transaction/broadcast |
| Broadcast batch transactions | POST | /api/v1/noncustodial/bitcoin/transaction/batch/broadcast |
| Fetch balance | GET | /api/v1/noncustodial/bitcoin/address/balance |
| Fetch transaction history | GET | /api/v1/noncustodial/bitcoin/address/transactions |
| Query transaction by TXID | GET | /api/v1/noncustodial/bitcoin/transaction/{txid} |
| Label address for business use | POST | /api/v1/noncustodial/bitcoin/address/label |
| General RPC Queries | POST | /api/v1/noncustodial/bitcoin/rpc |
Using Different Address Types
When requesting a new Bitcoin address, you can specify the address type:
| Address Type | Description |
|---|---|
| legacy (P2PKH) | Traditional Bitcoin address (starts with 1...). Higher fees. |
| p2sh-segwit (Nested SegWit) | Compatibility addresses (starts with 3...). |
| native-segwit (P2WPKH) | Modern, cheaper transaction fees (starts with bc1q...). Recommended. |
| taproot (P2TR) | Next-gen privacy, efficiency (starts with bc1p...). Recommended for advanced apps. |
Sample Request Body:
Webhooks and Monitoring
You can configure:
Global webhook: Receive all incoming transaction events to a single endpoint.
Address-specific webhook: Define a webhook per generated or watched address.
Customizable webhook payloads to fit your internal event structures.
Webhook events include:
Incoming transaction detected
Transaction confirmation updates
Failed transaction broadcast notifications (if configured)
Security and Best Practices
Secure Private Keys: Use HSMs or encrypted databases for key management.
Cold/Hot Wallet Separation: For high-volume businesses, segregate hot wallets (daily operations) from cold wallets (treasury).
Fee Strategy: Use real-time fee estimation APIs before sending large transactions.
Address Rotation: Use a new receiving address per payment for better privacy and easier reconciliation.
Confirmations Policy: Always wait at least 3 confirmations before reflecting deposits in user balances.
Reconciliation Jobs: Set periodic background jobs to query blockchain state to cross-verify webhook events.
Notes on Explorer and Heavy Queries
Since Bitnob provides general Bitcoin RPC access, businesses can:
Fetch raw blocks (getblock, getblockhash)
Fetch mempool data
Query full transaction histories
Build analytics dashboards
Build lightweight explorers
without running their own Bitcoin Core full node infrastructure.
Example End-to-End Flow
Client App sends a request with its bearer token to the Bitnob API Layer.
Auth & Security verifies credentials and roles.
Depending on the endpoint, the request may route to Wallet Management, the Transactions Engine, or Value-Added Services.
All modules update and retrieve data from the Database & Ledger.
Client App receives a response with transaction details, balances, or confirmation of a completed service.
In the Business-Managed Custody model:
You fully own the custody responsibility.
Bitnob provides you with highly available, highly scalable Bitcoin node access.
You can build any Bitcoin-based financial product without worrying about blockchain ops complexity.
