Spark Program Proposal: Fiber Network Payment Gateway for WooCommerce
Category: Pure Tech (single category) Requested funding: $1,000 Timeline: 4 weeks Tags: Spark-Program, fiber, ckb, payments
1. Summary
A WooCommerce payment gateway plugin that lets any of WooCommerce’s millions of existing online stores accept Fiber Network (CKB) payments at checkout — install it like any other payment plugin, no custom code, no separate app.
Today, accepting Fiber payments requires embedding a React component or running custom infrastructure. That’s fine for a developer building a new app from scratch, but it locks out the huge existing base of non-technical merchants already running a store on WordPress/WooCommerce. This plugin closes that gap.
2. Problem
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WooCommerce powers a very large share of self-hosted e-commerce stores worldwide — it’s one of the most common ways small and mid-size merchants actually run a shop.
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Existing Fiber payment tooling (a React checkout component, a hardware POS terminal, a forum tipping plugin) all assume the merchant is a developer building something custom.
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There is currently no plug-and-play way for an existing WooCommerce store to add “Pay with Fiber” as a checkout option the way they’d add PayPal or Stripe.
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This means real-world merchant adoption of Fiber for payments is bottlenecked on custom development, not on Fiber’s actual capability.
3. What I’ll build
A standard WooCommerce payment gateway plugin (PHP, following WooCommerce’s official Payment Gateway API) that:
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Adds “Pay with Fiber” as a checkout option alongside existing payment methods.
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On order placement, generates a Fiber invoice for the exact order total (via a configured Fiber node/RPC endpoint) and displays it to the customer (QR code + copyable invoice string).
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Listens for payment confirmation (via Fiber node webhook/polling) and automatically marks the WooCommerce order as “Paid” / “Processing” once the invoice is settled.
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Provides a simple settings screen for the merchant to connect their own Fiber node (node URL + credentials), so funds go directly to the merchant — no custodial middleman.
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Handles the basic edge cases a real store needs: expired invoices, underpayment, order cancellation.
Explicitly out of scope for this grant (to keep it a properly-sized prototype, not an open-ended platform): multi-currency conversion, Shopify support, refund automation, subscription/recurring billing. These are natural follow-ups, not part of this deliverable.
4. Technical approach
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Built as a standard WooCommerce extension using the
WC_Payment_Gatewaybase class — the same pattern every existing WooCommerce payment plugin (Stripe, PayPal, etc.) follows, so it’s a well-understood integration surface, not a novel architecture. -
Communicates with a Fiber node over its existing RPC interface to create and check invoices — no changes needed to Fiber itself.
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Merchant runs their own Fiber node (or points to one they trust); the plugin is a thin, non-custodial bridge between WooCommerce’s order system and that node.
5. Milestones and budget breakdown
Total requested: $1,000, paid per Spark’s standard structure (20% upfront, 80% on delivery). Below is the milestone breakdown so progress is easy to check against, followed by the two actual payment events.
M0 — Kickoff (paid: $200, 20% upfront on approval). Grant approved, funds released to begin work.
M1 — Core plugin skeleton (Week 1, tracked but not separately paid). The WooCommerce gateway plugin registers correctly, appears as a checkout option, connects to a configured Fiber node’s RPC, and can create a test invoice.
M2 — Payment flow (Weeks 2–3, tracked but not separately paid). The invoice is displayed to the customer (QR code + copyable string), the order status updates automatically once the Fiber node confirms payment, and expired/underpaid edge cases are handled.
M3 — Testing, docs, and demo (Week 4, paid: $800, 80% on completion). End-to-end test on a real WooCommerce staging store with a real Fiber testnet payment; merchant setup guide written; demo video recorded; public repo published.
(Spark’s standard payout structure is 20% upfront / 80% on completion rather than per-milestone, so M1 and M2 are tracked as internal progress checkpoints, while M0 and M3 are the two actual payment events.)
What the $1,000 covers: this is a solo/small-scope build, so the budget is essentially covering focused development time over the 4 weeks (plugin development, Fiber node integration and testing, staging store setup, documentation, and demo recording) rather than separate line items for infrastructure — a WooCommerce staging site and a Fiber testnet node are both free to run.
6. How to Verify
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Public GitHub repo containing the plugin code, installable on any WordPress/WooCommerce install.
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A recorded demo: a test WooCommerce store, a customer selecting “Pay with Fiber” at checkout, paying a real Fiber testnet invoice, and the order automatically flipping to “Paid.”
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A written merchant setup guide in the repo README (how to connect your Fiber node, configure the plugin) so a reviewer can independently install and test it without asking me anything.
7. Why this fills a real gap
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Existing Fiber payment tooling targets developers building custom apps or hardware, not the very large existing base of non-technical WooCommerce merchants.
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A search across the Nervos ecosystem forum, biweekly updates, and general web turned up no existing CKB/Fiber-specific WooCommerce or Shopify integration — everything in that space is generic (no crypto payment angle at all).
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It doesn’t compete with any team’s stated roadmap in the biweekly ecosystem updates.
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It’s a small, well-scoped, easily verifiable deliverable that fits squarely in the Spark Program’s “pure tech, proof-of-concept” mold.