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Interacting with your Bitcoin Node

ruanbekker

Ruan Bekker

Posted on September 13, 2021

Interacting with your Bitcoin Node

This is a series of posts on running your own bitcoin full-node on the testnet chain.

In my previous post I demonstrated how to setup a bitcoin full-node on the testnet chain.

In this post we will:

  • interact with our node using the CLI and JSON-RPC
  • create wallets and accounts
  • send test bitcoin to our accounts
  • track transactions using a block explorer
  • and more.

Pre-Requisites

Bitcoin core should be installed and fully synced, you can reference my previous post if you want to follow this guide.

CLI Usage

To get the current block count:

$ bitcoin-cli getblockcount
2091215
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To get some basic info about the first block ever created on the bitcoin blockchain. As the genesis block, it has the index value 0. We can use getblockhas to get the hash value for the first block ever created:

$ bitcoin-cli getblockhash 0
000000000933ea01ad0ee984209779baaec3ced90fa3f408719526f8d77f4943
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We can now use getblock with the hash value to retrieve details about the block:

$ bitcoin-cli getblock 000000000933ea01ad0ee984209779baaec3ced90fa3f408719526f8d77f4943
{
  "hash": "000000000933ea01ad0ee984209779baaec3ced90fa3f408719526f8d77f4943",
  "confirmations": 2004218,
  "strippedsize": 285,
  "size": 285,
  "weight": 1140,
  "height": 0,
  "version": 1,
  "versionHex": "00000001",
  "merkleroot": "4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b",
  "tx": [
    "4a5e1e4baab89f3a32518a88c31bc87f618f76673e2cc77ab2127b7afdeda33b"
  ],
  "time": 1296688602,
  "mediantime": 1296688602,
  "nonce": 414098458,
  "bits": "1d00ffff",
  "difficulty": 1,
  "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000100010001",
  "nTx": 1,
  "nextblockhash": "00000000b873e79784647a6c82962c70d228557d24a747ea4d1b8bbe878e1206"
}
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We can use the nextblockhash to retrieve information about block 1:

$ bitcoin-cli getblock 00000000b873e79784647a6c82962c70d228557d24a747ea4d1b8bbe878e1206
{
  "hash": "00000000b873e79784647a6c82962c70d228557d24a747ea4d1b8bbe878e1206",
  "confirmations": 2004217,
  "strippedsize": 190,
  "size": 190,
  "weight": 760,
  "height": 1,
  "version": 1,
  "versionHex": "00000001",
  "merkleroot": "f0315ffc38709d70ad5647e22048358dd3745f3ce3874223c80a7c92fab0c8ba",
  "tx": [
    "f0315ffc38709d70ad5647e22048358dd3745f3ce3874223c80a7c92fab0c8ba"
  ],
  "time": 1296688928,
  "mediantime": 1296688928,
  "nonce": 1924588547,
  "bits": "1d00ffff",
  "difficulty": 1,
  "chainwork": "0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000200020002",
  "nTx": 1,
  "previousblockhash": "000000000933ea01ad0ee984209779baaec3ced90fa3f408719526f8d77f4943",
  "nextblockhash": "000000006c02c8ea6e4ff69651f7fcde348fb9d557a06e6957b65552002a7820"
}
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We can use -getinfo to get information show as the verification progress and balances in our wallets, should they exist:

$ bitcoin-cli -getinfo
{
  "version": 210100,
  "blocks": 2091215,
  "headers": 2091215,
  "verificationprogress": 0.9999993040419591,
  "timeoffset": 0,
  "connections": {
    "in": 0,
    "out": 10,
    "total": 10
  },
  "proxy": "",
  "difficulty": 16777216,
  "chain": "test",
  "relayfee": 0.00001000,
  "warnings": "Warning: unknown new rules activated (versionbit 28)",
  "balances": {
  }
}
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For more examples view chainquery

JSON RPC Usage

First get the jsonrpc user and password:

$ cat ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf | grep -E '(rpcuser|rpcpassword)'
rpcuser=bitcoin
rpcpassword=xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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Because this is a test environment, we can set the username and password as an environment variable:

# the user and password might differ on your setup
$ export bitcoinauth="bitcoin:xxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
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Wallet Interaction

Create a wallet:

curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "createwallet", "params": ["wallet"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/
{"result":{"name":"wallet","warning":""},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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List wallets:

curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "tutorial", "method": "listwallets", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/
{"result":["wallet"],"error":null,"id":"tutorial"}
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If we inspect the bitcoin.conf we will notice that we don't have the wallet loaded in our config:

$ cat ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf | grep -c 'wallet='
0
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But since we created the wallet, we can see the wallet.dat in our data directory:

$ find /blockchain/ -type f -name wallet.dat
/blockchain/bitcoin/data/testnet3/wallets/wallet/wallet.dat
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Let's restart the bitcoind service and see if we can still list our wallet, first restart the service:

$ sudo systemctl restart bitcoind
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Then wait a couple of seconds and list the wallets:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "tutorial", "method": "listwallets", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/
{"result":[],"error":null,"id":"tutorial"}
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As you can see it's not loaded, due to it not being in the config. Let's update our config ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf, and restart the service:

# more wallets can be referenced by using another wallet= config
[test]
wallet=wallet
# which corresponds to datadir + walletdir
# /blockchain/bitcoin/data/testnet3/wallets/wallet/wallet.dat
# /blockchain/bitcoin/data/testnet3/wallets/wallet/db.log
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When I restarted the bitcoind service, I checked the logs with journalctl -fu bitcoind, and I could see the wallet has been loaded:

Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z init message: Loading wallet...
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z BerkeleyEnvironment::Open: LogDir=/blockchain/bitcoin/data/testnet3/wallets/wallet/database ErrorFile=/blockchain/bitcoin/data/testnet3/wallets/wallet//db.log
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z txindex thread start
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z txindex is enabled at height 2004267
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z txindex thread exit
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z [wallet] Wallet File Version = 169900
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z [wallet] Keys: 2001 plaintext, 0 encrypted, 2001 w/ metadata, 2001 total. Unknown wallet records: 0
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z [wallet] Wallet completed loading in              39ms
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z init message: Rescanning...
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z [wallet] Rescanning last 2 blocks (from block 2004265)...
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z [wallet] Rescan started from block 000000000000001f778a8e2b68cf05490ae000e653b925bb0552c1b79ef4fe70...
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z [wallet] Rescan completed in               2ms
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z [wallet] setKeyPool.size() = 2000
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z [wallet] mapWallet.size() = 0
Jun 10 13:16:23 ip-172-31-82-15 bitcoind[41053]: 2021-06-10T13:16:23Z [wallet] m_address_book.size() = 0
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When I list the wallets again:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "tutorial", "method": "listwallets", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/
{"result":["wallet"],"error":null,"id":"tutorial"}
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Now that the wallet has been loaded, we can get wallet info:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "tutorial", "method": "getwalletinfo", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/ | jq .
{
  "result": {
    "walletname": "wallet",
    "walletversion": 169900,
    "format": "bdb",
    "balance": 0,
    "unconfirmed_balance": 0,
    "immature_balance": 0,
    "txcount": 0,
    "keypoololdest": 1623329789,
    "keypoolsize": 1000,
    "hdseedid": "x",
    "keypoolsize_hd_internal": 1000,
    "paytxfee": 0,
    "private_keys_enabled": true,
    "avoid_reuse": false,
    "scanning": false,
    "descriptors": false
  },
  "error": null,
  "id": "tutorial"
}
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Create another wallet, named test-wallet:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "createwallet", "params": ["test-wallet"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/
{"result":{"name":"test-wallet","warning":""},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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After we created our wallet, list the wallets again:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "listwallets", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/
{"result":["wallet","test-wallet"],"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Now that we have 2 wallets, we need to specify the wallet name, when we want to do a getwalletinfo method for a specific wallet, test-wallet in this case:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getwalletinfo", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet | jq .
{
  "result": {
    "walletname": "test-wallet",
    "walletversion": 169900,
    "format": "bdb",
    "balance": 0,
    "unconfirmed_balance": 0,
    "immature_balance": 0,
    "txcount": 0,
    "keypoololdest": 1623333495,
    "keypoolsize": 1000,
    "hdseedid": "x",
    "keypoolsize_hd_internal": 1000,
    "paytxfee": 0,
    "private_keys_enabled": true,
    "avoid_reuse": false,
    "scanning": false,
    "descriptors": false
  },
  "error": null,
  "id": "curltest"
}
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In order to understand where the data resides for our test-wallet, we can use find:

$ find /blockchain/ -type f -name wallet.dat | grep test-wallet
/blockchain/bitcoin/data/testnet3/wallets/test-wallet/wallet.dat

$ find /blockchain/ -type f -name db.log | grep test-wallet
/blockchain/bitcoin/data/testnet3/wallets/test-wallet/db.log
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Include the wallet name in the config located at ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf:

[test]
wallet=wallet
wallet=test-wallet
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Then restart bitcoind:

$ sudo systemctl restart bitcoind
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Now list our wallets again, and you should see they are being read from config and the wallets will persist if your node restarts:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "listwallets", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/
{"result":["wallet","test-wallet"],"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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To backup a wallet, the test-wallet in this case:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "backupwallet", "params": ["test-wallet_bak.dat"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":null,"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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To check where the file was backed up:

$ find /blockchain/ -name test-wallet_bak.dat
/blockchain/bitcoin/data/test-wallet_bak.dat
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Addresses

At this moment we have wallets, but we don't have any addresses associated to those wallets, we can verify this by listing wallet addresses using the getaddressesbylabel and passing a empty label as new addresses gets no labels assigned by default.

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getaddressesbylabel", "params": [""]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":{"":{"purpose":"receive"}},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Let's generate a new address for our test-wallet:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getnewaddress", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":"tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc","error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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As you can see our address for test-wallet is tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc, note that you can have multiple addresses per wallet.

To get address information for the wallet by using the getaddressinfo method and passing the wallet address as the parameter:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getaddressinfo", "params": ["tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet | jq .
{
  "result": {
    "address": "tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc",
    "scriptPubKey": "x",
    "ismine": true,
    "solvable": true,
    "desc": "wpkh([05c34822/0'/0'/0']x)#x3x5vu3t",
    "iswatchonly": false,
    "isscript": false,
    "iswitness": true,
    "witness_version": 0,
    "witness_program": "1eb57750b62dxe284e32cd44f6e49",
    "pubkey": "023a1250c0d44751b604656x649357b5e530b9f8500f03ab5b",
    "ischange": false,
    "timestamp": 1623333494,
    "hdkeypath": "m/0'/0'/0'",
    "hdseedid": "x",
    "hdmasterfingerprint": "x",
    "labels": [
      ""
    ]
  },
  "error": null,
  "id": "curltest"
}
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As before, we can view the address by label, to view the address for your wallet, we will now see our address:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getaddressesbylabel", "params": [""]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":{"tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc":{"purpose":"receive"}},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Get available wallet balance with at least 6 confirmations,:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getbalance", "params": ["*", 6]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":0.00000000,"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Get balances (all balances) for the test-wallet wallet:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getbalances", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":{"mine":{"trusted":0.00000000,"untrusted_pending":0.00000000,"immature":0.00000000}},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Create a new address:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getnewaddress", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":"tb1qa7e0mmgsul6pnxhzx7rw49y9qf35enqqra47hh","error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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List all addresses for the wallet:

# by default new addresses has no labels, therefore it returns both
$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getaddressesbylabel", "params": [""]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":{"tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc":{"purpose":"receive"},"tb1qa7e0mmgsul6pnxhzx7rw49y9qf35enqqra47hh":{"purpose":"receive"}},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Labelling Addresses

Now we can label addresses on wallets, to label the first address as "green":

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "setlabel", "params": ["tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc", "green"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":null,"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Label the new address as "blue":

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "setlabel", "params": ["tb1qa7e0mmgsul6pnxhzx7rw49y9qf35enqqra47hh", "blue"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":null,"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Now we can list addresses for our wallet by the label, "blue" in this example:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getaddressesbylabel", "params": ["blue"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":{"tb1qa7e0mmgsul6pnxhzx7rw49y9qf35enqqra47hh":{"purpose":"receive"}},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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List addresses for our wallet by the label "green":

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getaddressesbylabel", "params": ["green"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":{"tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc":{"purpose":"receive"}},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Create another address for our test-walet:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getnewaddress", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":"tb1qunk223dztk2j2zqswleyenwu3chfqt642vrp8z","error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Set the new address to the green label:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "setlabel", "params": ["tb1qunk223dztk2j2zqswleyenwu3chfqt642vrp8z", "green"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":null,"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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List addresses by green label:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getaddressesbylabel", "params": ["green"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":{"tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc":{"purpose":"receive"},"tb1qunk223dztk2j2zqswleyenwu3chfqt642vrp8z":{"purpose":"receive"}},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Receive tBTC

You can receive free test btc, by using any of these testnet faucet websites to receive tBTC over testnet:

The transaction details for sending 0.001 tbtc to my tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc address, we will receive the following information:

  • TxID: 637ea98aca23411059ad79aca7ea36ae30b68a173d89e6644703a06a1a846c25
  • Destination Address: tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc
  • Amount: 0.001

Then to list transactions:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "listtransactions", "params": ["*"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet | jq .
{
  "result": [
    {
      "address": "tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc",
      "category": "receive",
      "amount": 0.001,
      "label": "green",
      "vout": 1,
      "confirmations": 0,
      "trusted": false,
      "txid": "637ea98aca23411059ad79aca7ea36ae30b68a173d89e6644703a06a1a846c25",
      "walletconflicts": [],
      "time": 1623337058,
      "timereceived": 1623337058,
      "bip125-replaceable": "no"
    }
  ],
  "error": null,
  "id": "curltest"
}
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As you can see at the time, there were 0 confirmations, we can see the same txid as well as other info. With the testnet, we require at least 1 confirmation before a transaction is confirmed, where the mainnet requires 6.

To get balances for our wallet:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getbalances", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":{"mine":{"trusted":0.00000000,"untrusted_pending":0.00100000,"immature":0.00000000}},"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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As you can see as we don't have any confirmations yet, so therefore the trusted value is still 0.

Listing the transactions over time:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "listtransactions", "params": ["*"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet | jq .
{
  "result": [
    {
      "address": "tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc",
      "category": "receive",
      "amount": 0.001,
      "label": "green",
      "vout": 1,
      "confirmations": 0,
      "trusted": false,
      "txid": "637ea98aca23411059ad79aca7ea36ae30b68a173d89e6644703a06a1a846c25",
      "walletconflicts": [],
      "time": 1623337058,
      "timereceived": 1623337058,
      "bip125-replaceable": "no"
    }
  ],
  "error": null,
  "id": "curltest"
}
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After a couple of minutes:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "listtransactions", "params": ["*"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet | jq .
{
  "result": [
    {
      "address": "tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc",
      "category": "receive",
      "amount": 0.001,
      "label": "green",
      "vout": 1,
      "confirmations": 2,
      "blockhash": "0000000000000000ba226ad21b51fe3998180dc354ec433ad7a4c4897e04d805",
      "blockheight": 2004280,
      "blockindex": 107,
      "blocktime": 1623337883,
      "txid": "637ea98aca23411059ad79aca7ea36ae30b68a173d89e6644703a06a1a846c25",
      "walletconflicts": [],
      "time": 1623337058,
      "timereceived": 1623337058,
      "bip125-replaceable": "no"
    }
  ],
  "error": null,
  "id": "curltest"
}
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Block Explorer

We can also use a blockchain explorer, head over to a testnet blockchain explorer, such as:

And provide the txid, in my case it was this one:

This transaction was done a while ago, so the confirmations will be much more than from the output above, but you can see the confirmations, addresses involved and tbtc amount.

To only get the trusted balance, using the getbalance method and with at least 6 confirmations:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getbalance", "params": ["*", 6]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":0.00100000,"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Let's send another transaction, the list the transactions using the listtransactions method:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "listtransactions", "params": ["*"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet | jq .
{
  "result": [
    {
      "address": "tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc",
      "category": "receive",
      "amount": 0.001,
      "label": "green",
      "vout": 1,
      "confirmations": 4,
      "blockhash": "0000000000000000ba226ad21b51fe3998180dc354ec433ad7a4c4897e04d805",
      "blockheight": 2004280,
      "blockindex": 107,
      "blocktime": 1623337883,
      "txid": "637ea98aca23411059ad79aca7ea36ae30b68a173d89e6644703a06a1a846c25",
      "walletconflicts": [],
      "time": 1623337058,
      "timereceived": 1623337058,
      "bip125-replaceable": "no"
    },
    {
      "address": "tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc",
      "category": "receive",
      "amount": 0.0111048,
      "label": "green",
      "vout": 0,
      "confirmations": 1,
      "blockhash": "000000000000002912e2da87e6e752c38965fc21e108aab439fcdcd82ba6e37a",
      "blockheight": 2004283,
      "blockindex": 4,
      "blocktime": 1623338496,
      "txid": "3cac023b088a2ddb2d601538edfc72cd1bff1bd2e1a1531518500c5b7a52e473",
      "walletconflicts": [],
      "time": 1623338453,
      "timereceived": 1623338453,
      "bip125-replaceable": "no"
    }
  ],
  "error": null,
  "id": "curltest"
}
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After 12 hours, we can see that we have 102 confirmations for our first transaction and 99 transactions for the second transaction:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "listtransactions", "params": ["*"]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet | jq .
{
  "result": [
    {
      "address": "tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc",
      "category": "receive",
      "amount": 0.001,
      "label": "green",
      "vout": 1,
      "confirmations": 102,
      "blockhash": "0000000000000000ba226ad21b51fe3998180dc354ec433ad7a4c4897e04d805",
      "blockheight": 2004280,
      "blockindex": 107,
      "blocktime": 1623337883,
      "txid": "637ea98aca23411059ad79aca7ea36ae30b68a173d89e6644703a06a1a846c25",
      "walletconflicts": [],
      "time": 1623337058,
      "timereceived": 1623337058,
      "bip125-replaceable": "no"
    },
    {
      "address": "tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc",
      "category": "receive",
      "amount": 0.0111048,
      "label": "green",
      "vout": 0,
      "confirmations": 99,
      "blockhash": "000000000000002912e2da87e6e752c38965fc21e108aab439fcdcd82ba6e37a",
      "blockheight": 2004283,
      "blockindex": 4,
      "blocktime": 1623338496,
      "txid": "3cac023b088a2ddb2d601538edfc72cd1bff1bd2e1a1531518500c5b7a52e473",
      "walletconflicts": [],
      "time": 1623338453,
      "timereceived": 1623338453,
      "bip125-replaceable": "no"
    },
    {
      "address": "tb1qr66hw59k958xrz008n679p8r9n2y7mjfr3tsjc",
      "category": "receive",
      "amount": 0.03521065,
      "label": "green",
      "vout": 5,
      "confirmations": 27,
      "blockhash": "000000000000004255a9d5af67b4649ff3f4d6a2f0c334261ca822cd9fbd00a9",
      "blockheight": 2004355,
      "blockindex": 43,
      "blocktime": 1623383177,
      "txid": "eb43868bd2c5abd97d4f5f11450952837bc3edc149478248e9453fdfb05c5187",
      "walletconflicts": [],
      "time": 1623382990,
      "timereceived": 1623382990,
      "bip125-replaceable": "no"
    }
  ],
  "error": null,
  "id": "curltest"
}
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After 3 transactions, view the balance in the test wallet using the getbalance method:

$ curl -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curltest", "method": "getbalance", "params": ["*", 6]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":0.04731545,"error":null,"id":"curltest"}
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Sending a raw transaction

A easier way to send a transaction is by using sendtoaddress and the source wallet will be in the request url, ie: /wallet/wallet-name

First we look if we have a address for our account that we are sending from, if not then we can create a wallet and a address, for this example, I have a address for the wallet wallet:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curl", "method": "getaddressesbylabel", "params": [""]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/wallet
{"result":{"tb1qks4tyrz52vvdh35kcx0ypvnj3fjdkl692pzfyc":{"purpose":"receive"}},"error":null,"id":"curl"}
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Ensure that our source wallet has funds in it:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curl", "method": "getbalance", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/wallet | python -m json.tool
{
    "error": null,
    "id": "curl",
    "result": 0.01811929
}
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We have enough funds to send, so we now have the source wallet name and we need to get the wallet address, where we want to send the funds to, which in this case is the address in test-wallet as the destination:

curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curl", "method": "getaddressesbylabel", "params": [""]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet
{"result":{"tb1qzxmefmcpq98z42v67a80gvug2fe979r5h768yv":{"purpose":"receive"}},"error":null,"id":"curl"}
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Just to double check our current funds in the wallet that will receive funds:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curl", "method": "getbalance", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/test-wallet | python -m json.tool
{
    "error": null,
    "id": "curl",
    "result": 0.35572584
}
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Now we will use the sendtoaddress method, with the recipient address and the amount to send as the parameters. To summarize:

  • Source Wallet: wallet
  • Destination Address: tb1qzxmefmcpq98z42v67a80gvug2fe979r5h768yv
  • Amount to send: 0.01.

Sending the amount:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth"  -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id":"0", "method": "sendtoaddress", "params":["tb1qzxmefmcpq98z42v67a80gvug2fe979r5h768yv", 0.01]}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/wallet
{"result":"df087095ac79d678f9d98c8bf8ebface2ac62a20546d85e07a852feb2c3bea50","error":null,"id":"0"}
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We will receive a transaction id, and if we list for transactions for our source wallet, we will see the transaction:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curl", "method": "listtransactions", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/wallet | python -m json.tool
{
    "error": null,
    "id": "curl",
    "result": [
        {
            "address": "tb1qks4tyrz52vvdh35kcx0ypvnj3fjdkl692pzfyc",
            "amount": 0.01811929,
            "bip125-replaceable": "no",
            "blockhash": "000000000000003c0ac4978ba815ff8f0d7f55da98923c686118c75461fb579e",
            "blockheight": 2091275,
            "blockindex": 1,
            "blocktime": 1630677226,
            "category": "receive",
            "confirmations": 1,
            "label": "",
            "time": 1630677177,
            "timereceived": 1630677177,
            "txid": "e44b45a309284e8044a15dca8c0a895a5c7072741882281038fb185cc0c1a0d9",
            "vout": 0,
            "walletconflicts": []
        },
        {
            "abandoned": false,
            "address": "tb1qzxmefmcpq98z42v67a80gvug2fe979r5h768yv",
            "amount": -0.01,
            "bip125-replaceable": "no",
            "category": "send",
            "confirmations": 0,
            "fee": -1.41e-06,
            "time": 1630677743,
            "timereceived": 1630677743,
            "trusted": true,
            "txid": "df087095ac79d678f9d98c8bf8ebface2ac62a20546d85e07a852feb2c3bea50",
            "vout": 0,
            "walletconflicts": []
        }
    ]
}
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So when we look at the sender wallet, we will see the funds was deducted:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curl", "method": "getbalance", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/wallet | python -m json.tool
{
    "error": null,
    "id": "curl",
    "result": 0.00811788
}
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And when we look at the receiver wallet, we can see that the account was received:

$ curl -s -u "$bitcoinauth" -d '{"jsonrpc": "1.0", "id": "curl", "method": "getbalance", "params": []}' -H 'content-type: text/plain;' http://127.0.0.1:18332/wallet/rpi01-main | python -m json.tool
{
    "error": null,
    "id": "curl",
    "result": 0.36572584
}
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Thank You

Thanks for reading, if you like my content, check out my website or follow me at @ruanbekker on Twitter.

The source code of this blog post will be added to this Github Repository:

💖 💪 🙅 🚩
ruanbekker
Ruan Bekker

Posted on September 13, 2021

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