Sending the payment to a crypto payment processor

The bitcoin address, payable amount, and QR code issued by a payment processor normally stay active for just a short window — usually somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes — since the fiat-to-crypto rate keeps shifting in real time.

Whenever bitcoin is routed through Whir, we first have to wait for the initial network confirmation. Only after that confirmation lands do we forward the coins privately onward to the payment processor. 

The catch: if that first confirmation drags on past the window the processor allows, the merchant will simply cancel and refund your transaction.

For this reason, paying a crypto processor straight from Whir isn't the safest move. A smarter route is to anonymize the funds beforehand and send them yourself. 

The procedure looks like this:

1.  Spin up a fresh wallet from a brand-new seed phrase, treating it as your anonymous one. 

2. From your everyday private wallet, push the coins through Whir into that newly created anonymous wallet. 

3. Once the funds land in the anonymous wallet, you can then transfer them straight to the payment processor without a middleman.

Should any change remain on the anonymous wallet afterward, avoid returning it to your original private wallet — doing so would link the two and undo the privacy gains you just achieved.