Go Language dns seeder for Bitcoin based networks
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Table of Contents

  1. About
  2. Getting Started
    1. Installation
      1. Windows
      2. Linux/BSD/MacOSX/POSIX
    2. Configuration
    3. Controlling and Querying btcd via btcctl
    4. Mining
  3. Help
    1. Startup
      1. Using bootstrap.dat
    2. Network Configuration
    3. Wallet
  4. Contact
    1. IRC
    2. Mailing Lists
  5. Developer Resources
    1. Code Contribution Guidelines
    2. JSON-RPC Reference
    3. The btcsuite Bitcoin-related Go Packages

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

2.1 Installation

The first step is to install btcd. See one of the following sections for details on how to install on the supported operating systems.

2.1.1 Windows Installation

  • 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/...
  • Run btcd: $ btcd

2.2 Configuration

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

2.4 Mining
btcd supports both the getwork and getblocktemplate RPCs although the getwork RPC is deprecated and will likely be removed in a future release. The limited user cannot access these RPCs.

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

  1. Copy rpc.cert to /usr/share/ca-certificates: # cp /home/user/.btcd/rpc.cert /usr/share/ca-certificates/btcd.crt
  2. Add btcd.crt to /etc/ca-certificates.conf: # echo btcd.crt >> /etc/ca-certificates.conf
  3. 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

3.1 Startup

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.

3.1.1 bootstrap.dat

3.1.2 Network Configuration

3.1 Wallet

btcd was intentionally developed without an integrated wallet for security reasons. Please see btcwallet for more information.

4. Contact

4.1 IRC

  • irc.freenode.net, channel #btcd

4.2 Mailing Lists

  • btcd: discussion of btcd and its packages.
  • btcd-commits: readonly mail-out of source code changes.

5. Developer Resources