🚀 BitDrop

💡 Inspiration

In the growing world of decentralized finance and content monetization, creators often struggle to accept Bitcoin donations easily—especially in a secure, trackable, and user-friendly way. We wanted to build a seamless experience where anyone could start accepting Bitcoin donations with zero setup, full transparency, and real-time tracking. Thus, BitDrop was born.

🧠 What it does

BitDrop is a secure, full-stack Bitcoin donation platform that:

Generates unique Bitcoin Testnet addresses on demand
Displays a QR code for easy donations
Tracks the wallet’s balance and recent transactions
Provides a sleek and simple Chrome Extension interface
Runs a Flask backend that manages wallets and handles all logic via RESTful APIs

This makes it ideal for creators, nonprofits, and developers looking to prototype decentralized tipping flows.

🛠 How we built it

Backend: Built a Flask-based API using the bit library to:
- Generate Bitcoin Testnet private keys and addresses
- Track balances and transactions
- Expose endpoints for the extension to interact with
Frontend (Chrome Extension):
- Popup HTML + JS interface to:
- Generate new donation addresses
- Show live QR codes
- Fetch wallet balance & display recent transactions
- Styled using vanilla CSS for a clean, responsive feel
Tech Stack:
- Flask + Python
- Bit Library (Bitcoin Testnet)
- HTML/CSS/JavaScript
- Chrome Extension APIs

🧱 Challenges we ran into

API rate limiting from testnet blockchain explorers slowed down transaction fetching
Properly syncing wallet state and ensuring valid WIF-address mappings
Handling QR code generation in a lightweight way without bloating the extension
Making the extension and backend work seamlessly across different ports and local environments

🏆 Accomplishments that we're proud of

Fully working Chrome Extension that interacts with a real Bitcoin Testnet wallet
End-to-end donation lifecycle: from generating an address to receiving test BTC and showing it in the UI
Designed an intuitive, polished interface with real-time updates
Made the entire project modular, reusable, and GitHub-ready

📚 What we learned

Deep understanding of Bitcoin wallets, WIFs, and Testnet mechanics
How to create and style browser extensions using Manifest V3
Interfacing frontend extensions with Python Flask APIs
Best practices in separating logic across frontend/backend and handling async behavior

🔮 What's next for BitDrop

🔐 Add Taproot & Lightning Network support
🌐 Deploy the Flask API publicly using a service like Render or Railway
📦 Release the extension on the Chrome Web Store
🎨 Add user authentication and wallet management UI
📈 Build a dashboard with analytics and multi-currency support

Made with 💛 at [MIT Bitcoin Expo Hackathon 2025]

Built With

Submitted to

MIT Bitcoin Hackathon: Freedom Tech

Created by

I Built a Flask-based backend that creates a Bitcoin Testnet wallet, generates fresh addresses, and tracks wallet balance and transaction history. I also Integrated the extension with the bit Python library for lightweight wallet operations. I Implemented the following endpoints:
/generate-address, /addresses, /wallet-balance
, /transactions which Provides the core infrastructure that powers real-time Bitcoin donation tracking.

shivram Nekkanti
I was primarily responsible for designing and developing the Chrome extension frontend of BitDrop. I built an intuitive popup interface that allows users to generate new Bitcoin donation addresses, view QR codes, check wallet balances, and track recent transactions seamlessly. I integrated the frontend with our Flask backend API, handling asynchronous data fetching and dynamic UI updates. I also focused on creating a clean, responsive design with smooth user interactions, ensuring the extension is user-friendly and visually appealing. My work enabled content creators to easily manage their Bitcoin donation workflow directly within the browser.

ISHAN BISWAS
Collaborated with one of the team member, in terms of front-end ideation and design for safari Bitcoin donation extension.

Aryan Yadav
I was primarily responsible for developing the Safari extension frontend of BitDrop. I implemented a fully client-side solution that generates Bitcoin donation addresses securely within the browser using bitcoinjs-lib. I integrated public APIs to fetch wallet balances and recent transactions, and designed a user-friendly popup interface with features like QR code display, network toggling between testnet and mainnet, and faucet integration for easy testnet funding. My work ensured the Safari extension is privacy-preserving, lightweight, and easy to use for content creators accepting Bitcoin donations.

Sri Sai Charan Yarlagadda
I Implemented the dynamic balance fetching and recent transaction listing in the extension. The Transactions are pulled from the backend using /transactions and displayed in the popup UI. I also synced Flask app wallet using bit.network.NetworkAPI.get_transactions(). This ensured transparency and real-time feedback for donors and recipients.

SRI SAI TEJA METTU SRINIVAS
I focused on the backend development of our Safari Bitcoin Donation Extension, ensuring seamless integration of the bitcoinjs-lib library with our extension architecture. My primary contributions involved implementing the cryptographic functionality for secure Bitcoin address generation on the testnet network, handling private key management, and creating the transaction verification systems.

I collaborated closely with our frontend team to ensure the address generation functions responded efficiently to UI requests, making sure the QR code generation worked flawlessly without bloating the extension size. One of my key achievements was solving the API rate limiting challenges from testnet blockchain explorers by implementing efficient caching mechanisms.

I also made our codebase modular and reusable, properly documenting Bitcoin wallet mechanics for the team while ensuring all WIF-address mappings functioned correctly across different address types (Legacy, SegWit, and Taproot). Throughout the hackathon, I learned valuable lessons about browser extension architecture and best practices for separating frontend and backend logic in cryptocurrency applications.

Amit Yadav
Hey, everyone I'm an AI enthusiast and actively develop iOS Application where I bring those powerful LLM's into mobile, solving real problem

Updates

Amit Yadav started this project — Apr 05, 2025 11:27 PM EDT

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