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David Hill edited this page Mar 16, 2014 · 20 revisions

Table of Contents

About

btcd is a full node bitcoin implementation written in Go, licensed under the copyfree ISC License.

This project is currently under active development and is in an Alpha state.

It currently properly downloads, validates, and serves the block chain using the exact rules (including bugs) for block acceptance as the reference implementation, bitcoind. We have taken great care to avoid btcd causing a fork to the block chain. It passes all of the 'official' block acceptance tests.

It also properly relays newly mined blocks, maintains a transaction pool, and relays individual transactions that have not yet made it into a block. It ensures all individual transactions admitted to the pool follow the rules required into the block chain and also includes the vast majority of the more strict checks which filter transactions based on miner requirements ("standard" transactions).

One key difference between btcd and bitcoind is that btcd does NOT include wallet functionality and this was a very intentional design decision. See the blog entry for more details. This means you can't actually make or receive payments directly with btcd. That functionality is provided by the btcwallet and btcgui projects which are both under active development.

Getting Started

Installation

Windows

  1. Install the MSI available at: https://github.com/conformal/btcd/releases
  2. Launch btcd from the Start Menu

Linux/BSD/MacOSX/POSIX

  1. Install Go according to the installation instructions here: http://golang.org/doc/install
  2. Run the following command to obtain btcd, its dependencies, and install it:
   <pre>$ go get github.com/conformal/btcd/...

To upgrade, run the following command: ``$ go get -u github.com/conformal/btcd/...``

  1. Run btcd: 
    $ btcd

Configuration

btcd has a number of configuration options, which can be viewed by running: ``$ btcd --help``

      1. Controlling and querying btcd via btcctl
btcctl is a command line utility that can be used to both control and query btcd via [RPC](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_procedure_call). btcd does _not_ enable its RPC server by default; You must configure at minimum both an RPC username and password:
  • Command line
$ btcd -u myuser -P SomeDecentp4ssw0rd
  • btcd.conf configuration file
[Application Options]
rpcuser=myuser
rpcpass=SomeDecentp4ssw0rd
      1. Network Configuration
      1. Developer Resources
* [RPC](https://github.com/conformal/btcd/wiki/JSON-RPC-API#wiki-ExampleGoApp) * [Websocket](https://github.com/conformal/btcd/wiki/Websocket-JSON-RPC-API#wiki-ExampleGoApplications)
  • Conformal Bitcoin-related Go Packages:
* [btcjson](https://github.com/conformal/btcjson) - Provides an extensive API for controlling and communicating with the client using JSON-RPC calls * [btcws](https://github.com/conformal/btcws) - Custom types for btcd websocket extension commands (registers the websocket extension commands with [btcjson](https://github.com/conformal/btcjson)) * [btcwire](https://github.com/conformal/btcwire) - Implements the bitcoin wire protocol and is a core package from btcd * [btcchain](https://github.com/conformal/btcchain) - Implements Bitcoin block handling and chain selection rules * [btcscript](https://github.com/conformal/btcscript) - Implements the Bitcoin transaction scripting language * [btcec](https://github.com/conformal/btcec) - Implements support for the elliptic curve cryptographic functions needed for the Bitcoin scripts * [btcdb](https://github.com/conformal/btcdb) - Provides a database interface for the Bitcoin block chain * [btcutil](https://github.com/conformal/btcutil) - Provides Bitcoin-specific convenience functions and types
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