DIY storefront - query network to confirm payment?

[sawdust]

By day, I'm a web developer, but almost a complete novice to bitcoin.

I have website for a creative project that offers free downloads, and accepts tips/donations via a bitcoin address.

I'm thinking of also offering "premiums" in exchange for bitcoin, and would like not to involve a third-party processor if possible.

Could I simply have my web app send a bitcoin payment address to the customer, monitor the network for confirmation of payment, and then release the goods?

How would I monitor for this confirmation? 

Are there any good articles on this?

I'm probably most comfortable with python, if that matters.

Thanks!

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[vv181]

There are many options for that, the hard way is you can run your own bitcoin full node then integrate it with python bitcoin library and your website, but yeah, its cost a lot and inefficient. The simple way is you can use much available bitcoin payment processor and use their API.
for further reference here is the link: https://www.deepdotweb.com/2017/03/28/tutorial-accept-bitcoin-payments-website/

EDIT: since you didn't want third-party payments processor, I guest run your own node is the solution.

[HCP]

It you want lightweight payment processing... without the "third party" aspect, you might want to try "Mycelium Gear" (https://gear.mycelium.com/)

The bitcoins go directly into the wallet of your choosing, it generates "unique" addresses for customers (generated from your wallets xpub)... and apparently it has an API and does callbacks so your website gets a notification if the payment has been made.

And it's the low low price of free!

DISCLAIMER: I have NOT used this system for live payments on a live website... I hacked up some code and used TestNet to test it out... it seemed to work. I have no idea if this is a "safe" system... or how well it works on a live mainnet system.