README

Highly experimental, pure python tool for cryptocurrencies. Please notice that coins could change their protocols so make sure the coin parameters are not outdated.

INSTALLATION

Python 3.10 or newer is required. If you don't have it, install it by following instructions from python.org. Then run (using pip for Python 3):

pip install multicrypto

The package contains below commands:

1. sweepaddress - combines many inputs into one
2. sendcrypto - creates raw transaction and send it to block explorer api (Insight or Esplora)
3. checkaddress - checks address balance using block explorer api (Insight or Esplora)
4. transaddress - translates address to different coin format (resulting address will have the same private key)
5. transprivkey - translates WIF private key to different coin format
6. genaddress - generates vanity address for given coin
7. signmessage- signs message using ECDSA
8. verifymessage - verifies ECDSA signed message

USAGE

Before running any commands it is advised to disable shell history. For example on linux it should be enough to run:

unset HISTFILE

Run

1. Combining many small inputs to larger ones.

sweepaddress --coin_symbol=<COIN SYMBOL> --address=<ADDRESS> --wif_private_key=<PRIVATE KEY> --minimum_input_threshold=<INT> --maximum_input_threshold=<INT>

After mining some currency for longer period we could end up with address having a lot of small inputs. In such case it is very likely it will be not possible to send the funds in one transaction and it could be difficult to cope with. Let say for Horizen we have private key of the address which inputs we want to combine, but we want only combine inputs which are smaller than 0.1 ZEN:

sweepaddress -c ZEN -p KwDiDMtpksBAcfyHsVS5XzmirtyjKWSeaeM9U1QppugixMUeKMqp --maximum_input_threshold=10000000

This will create appropriate number of transactions (by default one transaction for each 50 inputs, you can override this value by setting parameter --batch_size, but setting it too high will result in too big transaction error), transaction fee will be set to default 10000 satoshis (0.0001 ZEN) per transaction (you can override it using --fee parameter) and the funds will be sent back to original address (you can override the output address using --address parameter). Inputs can be also filtered with --minimum_input_threshold. 2. Sending funds:

sendcrypto --coin_symbol=<COIN_SYMBOL> --satoshis=<INT> --address=<ADDRESS> --wif_private_keys=<PRIVATE KEYS> --fee=<INT> --minimum_input_threshold=<INT> --maximum_input_threshold=<INT> --limit_inputs=<INT>

Funds can be sent from many addresses at once by providing comma separated private keys. The default fee is 10000 satoshis, --limit_inputs (-l) limits the number of inputs used in the transaction and the change is sent back to the address of the last used input. Sending (P2PKH) 0.25 BTC to address 1BTC1NNjeiAmFqe2n1QJjkEa4aMyAhkpKG with default fee 10000 satoshis and only using inputs containing not more than 100000 satoshis:

sendcrypto -c BTC -s 25000000 -x 100000 -a 1BTC1NNjeiAmFqe2n1QJjkEa4aMyAhkpKG -p KwDiDMtpksBAcfyHsVS5XzmirtyjKWSeaeM9U1QppugixMUeKMqp

Sending (P2SH) 0.0019 BTC on testnet to address 2NDN55zZ6BtStckQWnhGJejBdM5EaGcNn7h with fee 5000 satoshis (notice that both input address 2NAMu8JCTLXtTv2LRQktByt1EoKaJaVmDAj and unlocking script 5106519351935387 must be provided):

sendcrypto -a 2NDN55zZ6BtStckQWnhGJejBdM5EaGcNn7h -c TBTC -i 2NAMu8JCTLXtTv2LRQktByt1EoKaJaVmDAj -u 5106519351935387 -s 190000 -f 5000

Segwit is supported for BTC, LTC and their testnets (TBTC, TLTC). Funds can be sent to bech32 addresses (native segwit bc1q... and taproot bc1p...), and with --address_type (-t) to spend funds from the nested segwit (p2sh-p2wpkh, 3...), native segwit (p2wpkh, bc1q...) or taproot (p2tr, bc1p...) address of the private key (default is p2pkh, the change is sent back to the same address). Taproot address is derived from the private key according to BIP-86 (key path only, without script tree) and inputs are signed with Schnorr signatures (BIP-340). This is also available in sweepaddress. Sending 0.25 BTC from the native segwit address of the private key to bech32 address:

sendcrypto -c BTC -s 25000000 -a bc1qw508d6qejxtdg4y5r3zarvary0c5xw7kv8f3t4 -p KwDiDMtpksBAcfyHsVS5XzmirtyjKWSeaeM9U1QppugixMUeKMqp -t p2wpkh

By default the transaction is sent to the block explorer API. Adding --p2p sends it directly to a node of the coin peer-to-peer network found using DNS seeds (inputs are still fetched from the API). Particular nodes can be selected with --node <HOST>[:<PORT>] (can be repeated, nodes are tried in order):

sendcrypto -c BTC -s 25000000 -a 1BTC1NNjeiAmFqe2n1QJjkEa4aMyAhkpKG -p KwDiDMtpksBAcfyHsVS5XzmirtyjKWSeaeM9U1QppugixMUeKMqp --p2p
sendcrypto -c BTC -s 25000000 -a 1BTC1NNjeiAmFqe2n1QJjkEa4aMyAhkpKG -p KwDiDMtpksBAcfyHsVS5XzmirtyjKWSeaeM9U1QppugixMUeKMqp --node 203.0.113.5:8333

3. Listing address inputs with total amount:

checkaddress --coin_symbol=<COIN SYMBOL> --address=<ADDRESS> --minimum_input_threshold=<INT> --maximum_input_threshold=<INT> --limit_inputs=<INT>

For example:

checkaddress -c BTC -a 14YK4mzJGo5NKkNnmVJeuEAQftLt795Gec

4. Translating address between coins:

transaddress --address=<ADDRESS> --input_symbol=<COIN SYMBOL> --output_symbol=<COIN SYMBOL> --file=<OUTPUT FILE> --output_dir=<DIRECTORY TO STORE QR CODE>

Add --script (-s) when translating P2SH address. For example to translate Bitcoin address 1BTC1NNjeiAmFqe2n1QJjkEa4aMyAhkpKG to Zcash address we enter:

transaddress -a 1BTC1NNjeiAmFqe2n1QJjkEa4aMyAhkpKG -i BTC -o ZEC

5. Translating private key in wif format between coins

transprivkey --private_key=<PRIVATE_KEY> --output_symbol=<COIN SYMBOL> --file=<OUTPUT FILE> --output_dir=<DIRECTORY TO STORE QR CODE>

Without --output_symbol the integer value of the private key is returned, with --integer (-i) the private key is given as integer instead of WIF. For example to translate Bitcoin private key KwDiDMtpksBAcfyHsVS5XzmirtyjKWSeaeM9U1QppugixMUeKMqp to Zcash private key we enter:

transprivkey -p KwDiDMtpksBAcfyHsVS5XzmirtyjKWSeaeM9U1QppugixMUeKMqp -o ZEC

6. Generating address with given pattern and corresponding private key:

genaddress --pattern=<PATTERN> --symbol=<COIN SYMBOL> --cores=<INT> --output_dir=<DIRECTORY TO STORE QR CODES>

Search can be run on many cores with --cores (-c, default 1). Other options: --segwit (-w) generates nested segwit (P2SH-P2WPKH) address, --uncompressed (-u) uses uncompressed private key and --input_script (-i) generates P2SH address for given script. For example if we want to create address with prefix t1aaaa for Zcash coin and save corresponding QR codes to /home/john directory we enter:

genaddress -p t1aaaa -s ZEC -d /home/john

To generate Bitcoin segwit address starting with 3BTC we enter:

genaddress -p 3BTC -s BTC -w

7. Signing message proving ownership of an address:

signmessage --coin_symbol=<COIN SYMBOL> --wif_private_key=<PRIVATE KEY> --message=<MESSAGE TO SIGN>

For example proving ownership of BTC address 1HCfFoucNXgYLvpcN2X4TwmUXJjGUMJ2hi:

signmessage -c BTC -p KzReaUKzSaGarrhFhjNMweTrpUx4gqX1KCMFSWJx9374kYNHpmSu -m "Hello World!"

will return: H7Ul0s8Za640duU2MhsifCX1H3Ma2NKRtLvtLYye6mFpZTW0fgXbM//bXq1yeXLHphXi8BUjtBsBHy0zrZjCYsQ=

8. Verifying if signed message was created using private key of given address:

verifymessage --coin_symbol=<COIN SYMBOL> --address=<ADDRESS> --message=<MESSAGE> --signed_message=<SIGNED MESSAGE>

For example verifying if H7Ul0s8Za640duU2MhsifCX1H3Ma2NKRtLvtLYye6mFpZTW0fgXbM//bXq1yeXLHphXi8BUjtBsBHy0zrZjCYsQ= is signed Hello World! message by owner of BTC address 1HCfFoucNXgYLvpcN2X4TwmUXJjGUMJ2hi we run:

verifymessage -c BTC -a 1HCfFoucNXgYLvpcN2X4TwmUXJjGUMJ2hi -m "Hello World!" -s H7Ul0s8Za640duU2MhsifCX1H3Ma2NKRtLvtLYye6mFpZTW0fgXbM//bXq1yeXLHphXi8BUjtBsBHy0zrZjCYsQ=

Supported coins

Coin	Symbol	Address generation	P2PKH transactions	P2SH transactions	Segwit transactions
Bitcoin	BTC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bitcoin Gold	BTG	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Bitcoin Hush	BTCH	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
BitcoinZ	BTCZ	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Dash	DASH	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Dogecoin	DOGE	Yes	No	No	No
Litecoin	LTC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Safecoin	SAFE	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
TENT	TENT	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Smartcash	SMART	Yes	No	No	No
Zcash	ZEC	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Zclassic	ZCL	Yes	No	No	No
Zeitcoin	ZEIT	Yes	No	No	No
Horizen	ZEN	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Zero	ZERO	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Bitcoin testnet	TBTC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bitcoin Cash testnet	TBCH	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Litecoin testnet	TLTC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Transactions require a block explorer API, coins without it support only address generation and translation. Segwit spending is supported from P2SH-P2WPKH, P2WPKH and taproot P2TR (key path) addresses, spending from P2WSH addresses and taproot script path is not supported (sending to them works).

Peer-to-peer network

Module multicrypto.network connects directly to nodes of the coin network (without block explorer), fetches addresses of their peers and broadcasts raw transactions. It is available for coins with network definition: BTC, BTG, DASH, DOGE, LTC, TBTC, TLTC, ZEC, ZEN.

from multicrypto.coins import coins
from multicrypto.network import Node, discover_nodes

nodes = discover_nodes(coins['BTC'])  # nodes found using DNS seeds
with Node(coins['BTC'], nodes[0].host, nodes[0].port) as node:
    peers = node.get_peers()
    transaction_id = node.send_transaction('<RAW TRANSACTION HEX>')

Development

The project is managed with uv. Dependencies are pinned in uv.lock and the development Python version in .python-version.

Setup

Install uv (the version used in CI is 0.13.0):

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/0.13.0/install.sh | sh

Create the virtual environment in .venv and install the package with all development dependencies exactly as locked:

uv sync --locked

uv downloads the required Python version automatically if it is not installed. Run uv sync again after pulling changes that modify pyproject.toml or uv.lock.

Running commands

uv run executes commands inside the project environment, no activation is needed:

uv run checkaddress -c ZEC -a t1ggACQ3HenPuiwEaL9vBFcDtxQogHvXzvt

If you prefer an activated shell:

source .venv/bin/activate

Tests

Run tests and check report htmlcov/index.html:

uv run python -m pytest --cov=./ --cov-report=html

Run tests with another supported Python version in a temporary environment (.venv stays untouched):

uv run --isolated --python 3.10 python -m pytest

Run tests in Docker (Python from the base image):

docker build -t mc .
docker container run mc

Run linter and formatter:

uv run ruff check .
uv run ruff format .

Managing dependencies

uv add requests                    # add runtime dependency
uv add --dev pytest-mock           # add development dependency
uv remove requests                 # remove dependency
uv lock --upgrade-package requests # upgrade single locked package

Always commit pyproject.toml together with the updated uv.lock.

Adding new coin

1. Add new entry in multicrypto/coins.py. Prefix bytes are usually defined in chainparams.cpp or base58.h files.

Exemplary for Horizen we have:

'ZEN': {
    'name': 'horizen',
    'address_prefix_bytes': b'\x20\x89',
    'secret_prefix_bytes': b'\x80',
    'script_prefix_bytes': b'\x1c\xbd',
    'params': {'check_block_at_height': True},
    'apis': [
        {'url': 'https://explorer.zensystem.io/insight-api-zen'}
    ]
}

Optional address_types lists address types which can be derived from a private key and spent (only p2pkh by default). Segwit coins define also bech32_hrp (human readable part of bech32 addresses from chainparams.cpp), for Bitcoin:

'bech32_hrp': 'bc',
'address_types': (P2PKH, P2SH_P2WPKH, P2WPKH, P2TR),

Entries in apis use the Insight API by default. Block explorers with the Esplora API (e.g. mempool.space, blockstream.info) need 'type': 'esplora', for Bitcoin:

'apis': [
    {'url': 'https://mempool.space/api', 'type': 'esplora'},
    {'url': 'https://blockstream.info/api', 'type': 'esplora'},
]

Optional network entry enables multicrypto.network. Values come from chainparams.cpp (pchMessageStart, nDefaultPort, vSeeds) and version.h (PROTOCOL_VERSION):

'network': {
    'magic': b'\x63\x61\x73\x68',
    'port': 9033,
    'protocol_version': 170002,
    'seeds': ['dnsseed.horizen.global', 'dnsseed.zensystem.io'],
}

2. Update this readme with new supported coin and add appropriate tests
3. Create pull request