Troubleshooting "Couldn't Create Payment" Error

When you choose a cryptocurrency tender (e.g., Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC) in Sandbox, the checkout performs two actions:

1. Create the payment in Bead’s sandbox gateway.

2. Generate a QR code that the consumer scans with their crypto wallet to run a test transaction on the correct test-net or partner sandbox.

If step 1 fails—usually because the downstream test-net or processor is temporarily unavailable—the UI shows the Couldn’t Create Payment dialog instead of the QR code.

Why it happens

Cause	Where it originates	Typical duration
Test-net instability (e.g., Bitcoin Testnet)	External blockchain nodes	Minutes to a few hours
Third-party sandbox outage (processor / wallet provider)	External service	Varies by provider
Config drift in our crypto sandbox gateway	Bead Sandbox	Rare; fixed quickly once detected

Our Sandbox relies on external networks and partner sandboxes for QR-code payloads, so any hiccup downstream bubbles up here.

Recommended workflow

1. Switch to a known-good tender

   • Use another payment tender to keep testing moving.

2. Retry later

   • Most blockchain test-nets recover on their own.

3. Let us know

   • Send a support ticket with merchantId and terminalId

   • We’ll confirm if we also see downstream issues and post status updates.

Impact on production

Production uses main-net rails and HA processor clusters, so this error is limited to Sandbox.