hellobitcoin

###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