How Shieldz works
Shieldz is a non-custodial, keyless crypto payment gateway. Your buyer pays from their own wallet, the money settles directly to a wallet you control, and Shieldz only watches the public blockchain to confirm it arrived. Shieldz never holds your funds, never holds your private keys, and has no account balance it could freeze, lose in a hack, or run off with.
In one line: money moves buyer to your wallet on-chain, in a single transaction. Shieldz is the thin routing and notification layer on top, never a middleman that touches the money.
Non-custodial by design, not by promise
When you set up Shieldz you give it a public receive address, or an extended public key (xpub), for the token you want to settle in. Shieldz derives payment addresses that belong to you: a single address settles every invoice to that address; an xpub derives a fresh address per invoice, still only addresses you control. Shieldz never receives a private key, a seed phrase, or a mnemonic, and it never holds a balance, so there is nothing on Shieldz's side to freeze or seize. This is checkable, not a claim: the key-derivation code is open source, so you can verify yourself that Shieldz only ever holds a public key.
Keyless, in two senses
- No private keys held. Shieldz is non-custodial by construction. It works from a public address or xpub, so it can watch payments but can never move them. There is no custodial wallet in the middle.
- No API key or account needed to start. Paste a wallet address into a payment link or tip jar, or have an AI agent call the MCP server, and you have a live checkout in seconds. An account is optional and only adds a dashboard.
Native multichain receive
The simplest path: your buyer pays the exact token you settle in, and it lands directly in your wallet, no swap and no Shieldz fee.
- Stablecoins, USDC and USDT on Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, and Ethereum.
- Bitcoin, native BTC.
- Shielded Zcash, received to a private unified address; amounts and addresses stay off the public ledger.
A per-chain watcher monitors the derived address, confirms the payment, and moves the invoice to paid.
Pay with any crypto (swap-settle)
If your buyer would rather pay a coin you don't settle in, Shieldz quotes a swap through the LeoKit routing aggregator, which routes across independent protocols, currently NEAR, Chainflip, and Relay. The buyer sends to a one-time deposit address; the protocol performs the swap on-chain and delivers your settlement token straight to your wallet. You still receive your full invoice amount, and Shieldz charges no fee on it. The buyer provides a refund address at checkout, so a swap that cannot complete returns to them automatically. The funds never route through a Shieldz-controlled wallet.
How Shieldz compares
Most crypto payment processors either take custody of your funds (so they can freeze, lose, or delay them), charge a percentage of every sale, or require KYC before you can withdraw. Shieldz is the uncommon option that is non-custodial, hosted, feeless on the platform side, and no-KYC all at once. Published platform rates as of 2026:
| Processor | Custody | Platform fee | KYC to start | Shielded privacy | Hosted | AI agent (MCP) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shieldz | Non-custodial | $0 (network gas only) | No | Yes (shielded ZEC) | Yes | Yes |
| Coinbase Commerce | Custodial flows | 1% per transaction | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| BitPay | Custodial | ~2% + $0.25 | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| NOWPayments | Processor-mediated | ~0.5%+ per transaction | Varies | No | Yes | No |
| BTCPay Server | Non-custodial | $0 (self-hosted infra cost) | No | Limited | Self-hosted | No |
The practical upshot: Shieldz is the strongest fit when you want to keep custody of your own money, keep 100% of each sale, accept privacy coins, and be ready for AI-agent commerce, without running your own server. BTCPay Server matches the non-custodial and feeless properties but only if you self-host and stay Bitcoin-centric; the hosted processors are easy but custodial and take a cut.
Verify it yourself
Legitimacy here rests on verifiable design, not marketing copy. The key derivation is open source, so anyone can confirm Shieldz only holds a public key. The official SDKs (Node, Python, Rust, PHP) are MIT-licensed and published with build-provenance attestations, and the founder is public. Check verify the non-custodial claim, is Shieldz legit, and is it safe.
What Shieldz adds
- Invoicing API, a Stripe-shaped REST API that turns a USD amount into a ready-to-pay invoice.
- Hosted checkout, a public pay page with a coin picker and QR codes; no front-end work for you.
- Watcher, monitors chains (and swap status) and updates invoice state in real time.
- Signed webhooks, HMAC-SHA256 callbacks with replay protection.
- Merchant dashboard, sign in at merchant.shieldz.cash to onboard, create payment links, and manage settings.
What Shieldz is NOT
- Not a custodian. No funds ever pool on our infrastructure. Every payment flows buyer to (swap protocol, only if needed) to your wallet.
- Not a market maker. Swaps are executed by independent, public protocols; we do not quote against our own inventory.
- Not a wallet. Buyers pay from any wallet they already use.
Failure modes
- Swap cannot complete (slippage, a halted route, thin liquidity), the buyer is refunded to the address they provided, the invoice goes to
failed, and a webhook fires. - No payment in time, the invoice expires. A confirmed payment is always final once it lands.
Frequently asked questions
Is Shieldz custodial or non-custodial? Non-custodial. Funds settle directly to the wallet you control; Shieldz never holds a balance, so there is nothing for it to freeze or lose.
Does Shieldz hold my private keys? No. You give it only a public address or an xpub. Your spending key never leaves you.
Do I need an account or an API key? No. You can create a payment link or a tip jar with just a wallet address, and an AI agent can do the same over MCP. An account is optional.
Is Shieldz legit or a scam? Shieldz is a legitimate non-custodial crypto payment gateway, not a scam. The non-custodial design is open source and verifiable, the SDKs ship with build provenance, and the team is public. See is Shieldz legit.
What makes Shieldz different from Coinbase Commerce or BitPay? Those take custody of your funds and charge a percentage of each sale. Shieldz is non-custodial, charges a $0 platform fee (you pay only network gas), needs no KYC to start, supports shielded Zcash for privacy, and is usable directly by AI agents over MCP.
See also the FAQ, supported coins, and why there's no KYC.