Decision Center
Laboratory roadmap
Every recommendation in the Decision Center is either documentation-verified or lab-verified, and we tell you which. This roadmap shows exactly where each platform stands, so you understand why some answers are still provisional.
What the stages mean
Documentation review means we have read the vendor's own primary documentation and recorded what it does and does not say. Laboratory validation means we have set the platform up and run real transactions, refunds, and reports ourselves. A finding is not "verified" until the lab confirms it; until then it is documentation-only or unknown.
Where each platform stands
Pending lab validation:
- Crypto custom-tender app exists in App Market
- Custom-tender checkout flow
- POS reporting / tender representation
- Settlement of custom-tender funds
- Refund workflow
- Accounting export
- Customer receipt
- Offline behavior
- Hardware (Station, Mini, Flex)
Pending lab validation:
- Crypto app works in Shopify POS in person
- Shopify POS custom tender to record a crypto sale
- POS reporting / tender representation
- Refund workflow
- Accounting export
- Receipts, taxes, discounts at POS
- Offline behavior
- Hardware (Dock, Retail Stand, readers)
Pending lab validation:
- Checkout flow
- Cashier workflow
- POS reporting / tender representation
- Refund workflow
- Accounting export
- Customer receipt
- Offline behavior
- Hardware (Register, Terminal, Stand, mobile)
Pending lab validation:
- Crypto partner tender exists for Toast
- Split check + tip on a crypto tender
- POS reporting / tender representation
- Settlement of partner-tender funds
- Refund and void workflow
- Server confirmation on handheld + kitchen timing
- Accounting export
- Offline behavior
- Hardware (Flex, Tap, Hub, handheld)
Right now, all four platforms are documentation-verified with lab validation in progress. None has completed hands-on testing yet, which is why no cell in our comparison reads "Verified." As lab work finishes, findings move from documentation-only to verified, confidence rises, and these pages update, with a dated change log on each platform page.
How this changes what you read
When a platform's lab testing completes, three things happen: its "unknown" cells get real answers, its confidence marker can rise above "low," and its recommendation may change, in either direction. A platform can be lab-verified and still not recommended; verification is about certainty, not endorsement.