python-bitcoinlib 0.1.1

python-bitcoinlib
-----------------

This Python2/3 library provides an easy interface to the bitcoin data
structures and protocol. The approach is low-level and "ground up", with a
focus on providing tools to manipulate the internals of how Bitcoin works.


Requirements
------------

sudo apt-get install libssl-dev

The RPC interface, bitcoin.rpc, is designed to work with Bitcoin Core v0.9.
Older versions mostly work but there do exist some incompatibilities.


Structure
---------

Everything consensus critical is found in the modules under bitcoin.core. This
rule is followed pretty strictly, for instance chain parameters are split into
consensus critical and non-consensus-critical.

bitcoin.core - Basic core definitions, datastructures, and
(context-independent) validation
bitcoin.core.bignum - Bignum handling
bitcoin.core.key - ECC pubkeys
bitcoin.core.script - Scripts and opcodes
bitcoin.core.scripteval - Script evaluation/verification
bitcoin.core.serialize - Serialization

In the future the bitcoin.core may use the Satoshi sourcecode directly as a
libary. Non-consensus critical modules include the following:

bitcoin - Chain selection
bitcoin.base58 - Base58 encoding
bitcoin.bloom - Bloom filters (incomplete)
bitcoin.net - Network communication (broken currently)
bitcoin.messages - Network messages (broken currently)
bitcoin.rpc - Bitcoin Core RPC interface support
bitcoin.wallet - Wallet-related code, currently Bitcoin address and private
key support

Effort has been made to follow the Satoshi source relatively closely, for
instance Python code and classes that duplicate the functionality of
corresponding Satoshi C++ code uses the same naming conventions: CTransaction,
CBlockHeader, nValue etc. Otherwise Python naming conventions are followed.


Example Code
------------

See examples/ directory. For instance this example creates a transaction
spending a pay-to-script-hash transaction output:

$ PYTHONPATH=. examples/spend-pay-to-script-hash-txout.py
<hex-encoded transaction>

Also see dust-b-gone for a simple example of Bitcoin Core wallet interaction
through the RPC interface: https://github.com/petertodd/dust-b-gone


Selecting the chain to use
--------------------------

Do the following:

import bitcoin
bitcoin.SelectChain(NAME)

Where NAME is one of 'testnet', 'mainnet', or 'regtest'. The chain currently
selected is a global variable that changes behavior everywhere, just like in
the Satoshi codebase.


Unit tests
----------

Under bitcoin/tests using test data from Bitcoin Core. To run them:

python -m unittest discover
python3 -m unittest discover