From Authorization to Settlement: A Payment Is a Lifecycle

A payment is a lifecycle rather than a static object. It involves separate stages: card authorization, money capture upon stock confirmation, and potential refunds. 3DS challenges can create delays in browser tabs invisible to servers, while webhooks deliver confirmations asynchronously or redundantly. Most SDKs oversimplify this complex process by flattening it into a single Payment object with one status field, which creates significant operational risks when developers rely on that simplified shape for order fulfillment.