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Table of Contents
1. 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 a Beta state. It is extremely stable and has been in production use for over 6 months as of May 2014, however there are still a couple of major features we want to add before we come out of beta.
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.
2. Getting Started
The first step is to install btcd. See one of the following sections for details on how to install on the supported operating systems.
- Install the MSI available at: https://github.com/btcsuite/btcd/releases
- Launch btcd from the Start Menu
2.1.2 Linux/BSD/MacOSX/POSIX Installation
- Install Go according to the installation instructions here: http://golang.org/doc/install
- Run the following command to ensure your Go version is at least version 1.2:
$ go version
- Run the following command to obtain btcd, its dependencies, and install it:
$ go get github.com/btcsuite/btcd/...
- To upgrade, run the following command:
$ go get -u github.com/btcsuite/btcd/...
- To upgrade, run the following command:
- Run btcd:
$ btcd
btcd has a number of configuration
options, which can be viewed by running: $ btcd --help
.
2.3 Controlling and Querying btcd via btcctl
btcctl is a command line utility that can be used to both control and query btcd via RPC. btcd does not enable its RPC server by default; You must configure at minimum both an RPC username and password or both an RPC limited username and password:
- btcd.conf configuration file
[Application Options]
rpcuser=myuser
rpcpass=SomeDecentp4ssw0rd
rpclimituser=mylimituser
rpclimitpass=Limitedp4ssw0rd
- btcctl.conf configuration file
[Application Options]
rpcuser=myuser
rpcpass=SomeDecentp4ssw0rd
OR
[Application Options]
rpclimituser=mylimituser
rpclimitpass=Limitedp4ssw0rd
For a list of available options, run: $ btcctl --help
1. Add the payment addresses with the miningaddr
option.
[Application Options]
rpcuser=myuser
rpcpass=SomeDecentp4ssw0rd
miningaddr=12c6DSiU4Rq3P4ZxziKxzrL5LmMBrzjrJX
miningaddr=1M83ju3EChKYyysmM2FXtLNftbacagd8FR
2. Add btcd's RPC TLS certificate to system Certificate Authority list.
cgminer
uses curl to fetch data from the RPC server.
Since curl validates the certificate by default, we must install the btcd
RPC
certificate into the default system Certificate Authority list.
Ubuntu
- Copy rpc.cert to /usr/share/ca-certificates:
# cp /home/user/.btcd/rpc.cert /usr/share/ca-certificates/btcd.crt
- Add btcd.crt to /etc/ca-certificates.conf:
# echo btcd.crt >> /etc/ca-certificates.conf
- Update the CA certificate list:
# update-ca-certificates
3. Set your mining software url to use https.
$ cgminer -o https://127.0.0.1:8334 -u rpcuser -p rpcpassword
3. Help
Typically btcd will run and start downloading the block chain with no extra
configuration necessary, however, there is an optional method to use a
bootstrap.dat
file that may speed up the initial block chain download process.
- What Ports Are Used by Default?
- How To Listen on Specific Interfaces
- How To Configure RPC Server to Listen on Specific Interfaces
- Configuring btcd with Tor
btcd was intentionally developed without an integrated wallet for security reasons. Please see btcwallet for more information.
4. Contact
- btcd: discussion of btcd and its packages.
- btcd-commits: readonly mail-out of source code changes.
5. Developer Resources
- Code Contribution Guidelines
- JSON-RPC Reference
- The btcsuite Bitcoin-related Go Packages:
- btcrpcclient - Implements a robust and easy to use Websocket-enabled Bitcoin JSON-RPC client
- btcjson - Provides an extensive API for the underlying JSON-RPC command and return values
- wire - Implements the Bitcoin wire protocol
- blockchain - Implements Bitcoin block handling and chain selection rules
- txscript - Implements the Bitcoin transaction scripting language
- btcec - Implements support for the elliptic curve cryptographic functions needed for the Bitcoin scripts
- database - Provides a database interface for the Bitcoin block chain
- btcutil - Provides Bitcoin-specific convenience functions and types