This patch primarily enforces block height being present in the coinbase transaction input, altough it introduces a number of other fixes and changes to support this. * VersionTally now returns the number of blocks at or above a version, rather than just at, to enable forward-compatible support (i.e. v3 blocks include all v2 block tests) * Block version is now explicitely provided in most tests which generate blocks, in order to ensure correct tests are applied * Block height is now used when generating coinbase transactions * Added support for the chain parameters to determine which tests apply to a block, so altcoins can override the defaults if needed. * Added initial checks ahead of full BIP 66 validation checks
Welcome to bitcoinj
The bitcoinj library is a Java implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, which allows it to maintain a wallet and send/receive transactions without needing a local copy of Bitcoin Core. It comes with full documentation and some example apps showing how to use it.
Technologies
- Java 6 for the core modules, Java 8 for everything else
- Maven 3+ - for building the project
- Orchid - for secure communications over TOR
- Google Protocol Buffers - for use with serialization and hardware communications
Getting started
To get started, it is best to have the latest JDK and Maven installed. The HEAD of the master
branch contains the latest development code and various production releases are provided on feature branches.
Building from the command line
To perform a full build use
mvn clean package
You can also run
mvn site:site
to generate a website with useful information like JavaDocs.
The outputs are under the target
directory.
Building from an IDE
Alternatively, just import the project using your IDE. IntelliJ has Maven integration built-in and has a free Community Edition. Simply use File | Import Project
and locate the pom.xml
in the root of the cloned project source tree.
Example applications
These are found in the examples
module.
Forwarding service
This will download the block chain and eventually print a Bitcoin address that it has generated.
If you send coins to that address, it will forward them on to the address you specified.
cd examples
mvn exec:java -Dexec.mainClass=org.bitcoinj.examples.ForwardingService -Dexec.args="<insert a bitcoin address here>"
Note that this example app does not use checkpointing, so the initial chain sync will be pretty slow. You can make an app that starts up and does the initial sync much faster by including a checkpoints file; see the documentation for more info on this technique.
Where next?
Now you are ready to follow the tutorial.