Learning Bitcoin from the Command Line is a tutorial for working with Bitcoin (and Lightning) that teaches direct interaction with the servers themselves, as the most robust and secure way to begin cryptocurrency work.
NOTE: This is a draft in progress, so that I can get some feedback from early reviewers. It is not yet ready for use.
This tutorial assumes that you have some minimal background of how to use the command line interface. If not, there are many tutorials available, and I have one for Mac users at https://github.com/ChristopherA/intro-mac-command-line.
Status: May need new concepts from 0.20.
Status: The PSBT and HWI content (chapter 6) is new, and so still being written.
Status: Requires renumbering; requires editing; requires check that it works in 0.20; requires concepts brought up to 0.20.
- 7.0: Introducing Bitcoin Scripts
- 8.0: Embedding Bitcoin Scripts in P2SH Transactions
- 9.0: Empowering Timelock with Bitcoin Scripts
- 10.0: Expanding Bitcoin Scripts
- 11.0: Designing Real Bitcoin Scripts
Status: Requires renumbering; Unwritten.
- 12.0: Using Tor
- 12.1: Verifying Your Tor Setup
- 12.2: Changing Your Bitcoin Hidden Services
- 12.3: Adding SSH Hiddne Services
Status: Requires renumbering; Unwritten. Chapter 14 may expand into multiple chapters.
(At this point, I'm assuming that Lightning will be integrated into Standup, at which point we just need to tech how to use it at a pretty basic level.)
- 13.0: Understanding Lightning
- 13.1: Verifying Your Lightning Setup
- 13.2: Setting up a Channel
- 13.3: Receiving a Transaction
- 14.0: Using Lightning
- 14.1: Sending a Transaction
- 14.X: Closing a Channel
Some good docs from one of the developers are here: https://diyhpl.us/wiki/transcripts/blockstream-webinars/2019-07-31-rusty-russell-getting-started-with-c-lightning/.
Status: Requires renumbering; This section is currently a messy set of older writings which are being reorganized as listed below. We're not going to work through this section until we've got chapters 1-11 updated per our current notes, then 12-14 written. But, if you'd like to see what we have to date on programming in correlation with Bitcoin Core, please feel free.
- 15.0: Talking to Bitcoind with C — Needs Rewrite + Editing
- 15.1: Accessing Bitcoind with C — Needs Rewrite
- 15.2: Programming Bitcoind with C — Needs Rewrite + Editing
- 15.3: Receiving Bitcoind Notifications with C — Pending
- 16.0: Programming with LibWally
- 17.1: Getting ready for LibWally
- 17.2: Using secp256k1 Functions
- 17.3: Writing Wallet Functions
- 17.4: Integrating Libwally and Scripts
- 17.0: Talking to Lightningd with C
- 18.0: Talking to Bitcoind with Other Languages
Status: Varied. Appendix I is recent that just needs editing for style; Appendix II needs a rewrite.
- Appendix I: Compiling Bitcoin from Source
- Appendix II: Using Bitcoin Regtest — Needs Rewrite + Editing
- A2.1: Starting the Regtest — Needs Rewrite + Editing
- A2.2: Mining with Regtest — Needs Rewrite + Editing
- A2.3: Testing with Regtest — Needs Rewrite + Editing
- [why is Regtest important if you're compiling it yourself?]
Learning Bitcoin from the Command Line is currently under active development and its writing in progress. Current chapters are functional, but need to be updated to more modern versions of Bitcoin-Core. Additional chapters also need to be written to fill out our intended scope.
The empty chapters above show some of our current plans for future work. Other plans, mainly drawn from old issues, can be found in TODO.md
Obviously, this work in progress should not be used for production tasks until it is completed and has had further testing and auditing.
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| Name | Role | Github | GPG Fingerprint | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Christopher Allen | Lead Author | @ChristopherA | <ChristopherA@LifeWithAlacrity.com> | FDFE 14A5 4ECB 30FC 5D22 74EF F8D3 6C91 3574 05ED |
| Shannon Appelcline | Lead Author | @shannona | <shannon.appelcline@gmail.com> | 7EC6 B928 606F 27AD |
Additional contributions are listed below:
| Role | Names |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | gg2001 (Go, Node.js sections), gorazdko (Rust section), Javier Vargas (C, Java, Tor sections), jodobear (Appendix I, Python section) |
| Reviewers: | Glen Willem @gwillem |
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