btcd

btcd is an alternative full node bitcoin implementation written in Go (golang).

This project is currently under active development and is in a Beta state. Itis extremely stable and has been in production use since October 2013.

It properly downloads, validates, and serves the block chain using the exactrules (including consensus bugs) for block acceptance as Bitcoin Core. We havetaken great care to avoid btcd causing a fork to the block chain. It includes afull block validation testing framework which contains all of the 'official'block acceptance tests (and some additional ones) that is run on every pullrequest to help ensure it properly follows consensus. Also, it passes all ofthe JSON test data in the Bitcoin Core code.

It also properly relays newly mined blocks, maintains a transaction pool, andrelays individual transactions that have not yet made it into a block. Itensures all individual transactions admitted to the pool follow the rulesrequired by the block chain and also includes more strict checks which filtertransactions based on miner requirements ("standard" transactions).

One key difference between btcd and Bitcoin Core is that btcd does NOT includewallet functionality and this was a very intentional design decision. See theblog entry herefor more details. This means you can't actually make or receive paymentsdirectly with btcd. That functionality is provided by thebtcwallet andPaymetheus (Windows-only) projectswhich are both under active development.

Requirements

Go 1.16 or newer.

Installation

https://github.com/btcsuite/btcd/releases

Linux/BSD/MacOSX/POSIX - Build from Source

• Install Go according to the installation instructions here:http://golang.org/doc/install

• Ensure Go was installed properly and is a supported version:

$ go version
$ go env GOROOT GOPATH

NOTE: The GOROOT and GOPATH above must not be the same path. It isrecommended that GOPATH is set to a directory in your home directory such as~/goprojects to avoid write permission issues. It is also recommended to add$GOPATH/bin to your PATH at this point.

• Run the following commands to obtain btcd, all dependencies, and install it:

$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/btcsuite/btcd
$ GO111MODULE=on go install -v . ./cmd/...

• btcd (and utilities) will now be installed in $GOPATH/bin. If you didnot already add the bin directory to your system path during Go installation,we recommend you do so now.

Updating

Linux/BSD/MacOSX/POSIX - Build from Source

• Run the following commands to update btcd, all dependencies, and install it:

$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/btcsuite/btcd
$ git pull
$ GO111MODULE=on go install -v . ./cmd/...

Getting Started

btcd has several configuration options available to tweak how it runs, but allof the basic operations described in the intro section work with zeroconfiguration.

Linux/BSD/POSIX/Source

$ ./btcd

IRC

• irc.libera.chat
• channel #btcd
• webchat

Issue Tracker

The integrated github issue trackeris used for this project.

Documentation

The documentation is a work-in-progress. It is located in the docs folder.

Release Verification

Please see our documentation on the current build/verificationprocess for all ourreleases for information on how to verify the integrity of published releasesusing our reproducible build system.

License

btcd is licensed under the copyfree ISC License.