tmesser / hellobitcoin

A collection of simple programs which can generate bitcoin wallets, create and sign transactions, and send transactions over the bitcoin network.

Overview

This is a collection of simple programs which can generate bitcoin wallets, create and sign transactions, and send transactions over the bitcoin network.

It was a learning project for me to learn more about both golang, and the bitcoin protocol.

This project consists of three programs which each contain the most basic usecase.

• keys.go - Generates a public/private key pair
• transaction.go - Creates, and signs a bitcoin transaction
• network.go - Connects to a peer, and sends a transaction over the network

Disclaimer

These programs are not "crytographically" random, and should not be used for any purpose other than educational use.

Installation

1. Install go
2. run go get to install dependencies
3. Follow the instructions at go-secp256k1 to compile bitcoin/c-secp256k1
4. Run one of the programs using the syntax below

Usage

Creating a key pair

go run keys.go

options (optional)
--testnet

Generating a transaction

go run transaction.go

options (required)
--private-key yourPrivateKey
--public-key yourPublicKey
--destination destinationPublicKey
--input-transaction inputTransactionHash
--satoshis satoshisToSend

options (optional)
--input-index inputTransactionIndex

Sending a transaction over the bitcoin network

go run network.go

options (required)
--transaction yourTransaction
--node-address 255.255.255.255 (IPv4 address of the bitcoin node to connect to)
--network-address 255.255.255.255 (IPv4 address of your public IP address)

options (optional)
--testnet

Dependencies

https://github.com/toxeus/go-secp256k1

This library is used for the creation of public keys from private keys, as well as signing transactions. It is a project which wraps the official bitcoin/c-secp256k1 bitcoin library.

https://github.com/tv42/base58

This library does the base58 conversion. I have included the base58 project in this codebase rather than importing it from the aforementioned github, because I needed to change the dictionary that was used.

Resources

• Bitpay's insight for testnet: https://test-insight.bitpay.com/
• TP's TestNet Faucet: http://tpfaucet.appspot.com/
• Ken Shirriff's blog post "Bitcoins the hard way": http://www.righto.com/2014/02/bitcoins-hard-way-using-raw-bitcoin.html
• The Bitcoin wiki: https://en.bitcoin.it/
• Bitcoin developer guide: https://bitcoin.org/en/developer-guide
• http://blockexplorer.com/ for general transction/address searching
• http://blockchain.info/ for general transction/address searching
• https://blockchain.info/connected-nodes to see a list of connected nodes
• bitcoin.stackexchange.com (http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/3374/how-to-redeem-a-basic-tx) Information on redeeming a raw transaction, and explanation of fields.

License

MIT