What is bitcoinjs-lib?
The bitcoinjs-lib npm package is a library for Bitcoin-related operations in JavaScript. It provides tools for creating, signing, and verifying Bitcoin transactions, as well as generating and managing Bitcoin addresses and keys.
What are bitcoinjs-lib's main functionalities?
Generate a Bitcoin Address
This feature allows you to generate a new Bitcoin address. The code creates a random key pair and derives a Bitcoin address from the public key.
const bitcoin = require('bitcoinjs-lib');
const keyPair = bitcoin.ECPair.makeRandom();
const { address } = bitcoin.payments.p2pkh({ pubkey: keyPair.publicKey });
console.log(address);
Create a Bitcoin Transaction
This feature allows you to create a Bitcoin transaction. The code builds a transaction by adding inputs and outputs, and then signs it with the private key.
const bitcoin = require('bitcoinjs-lib');
const keyPair = bitcoin.ECPair.fromWIF('your-private-key');
const txb = new bitcoin.TransactionBuilder();
txb.addInput('previous-txid', 0); // Add input (previous transaction)
txb.addOutput('recipient-address', 100000); // Add output (recipient address and amount in satoshis)
txb.sign(0, keyPair); // Sign the transaction
const tx = txb.build().toHex();
console.log(tx);
Verify a Bitcoin Transaction
This feature allows you to verify a Bitcoin transaction. The code parses a transaction from its hexadecimal representation and checks if all inputs have valid scripts.
const bitcoin = require('bitcoinjs-lib');
const tx = bitcoin.Transaction.fromHex('transaction-hex');
const txb = bitcoin.TransactionBuilder.fromTransaction(tx);
const isValid = txb.inputs.every(input => input.script && input.script.length > 0);
console.log(isValid);
Other packages similar to bitcoinjs-lib
bitcore-lib
Bitcore-lib is another JavaScript library for Bitcoin-related operations. It offers similar functionalities to bitcoinjs-lib, such as creating and signing transactions, generating addresses, and managing keys. Bitcore-lib is part of the Bitcore project, which includes additional tools and services for Bitcoin development.
bcoin
Bcoin is a full Bitcoin node implementation in JavaScript. It provides a comprehensive set of tools for Bitcoin development, including wallet management, transaction creation, and blockchain interaction. Bcoin is more feature-rich compared to bitcoinjs-lib, as it can run as a full node and participate in the Bitcoin network.
bitcoin-core
Bitcoin-core is a JavaScript library for interacting with Bitcoin Core, the reference implementation of the Bitcoin protocol. It allows developers to communicate with a Bitcoin Core node using RPC calls, enabling functionalities such as transaction creation, address management, and blockchain querying. Unlike bitcoinjs-lib, which is a standalone library, bitcoin-core relies on a running Bitcoin Core node.
BitcoinJS (bitcoinjs-lib)
The pure JavaScript Bitcoin library for node.js and browsers.
A continued implementation of the original 0.1.3
version used by over a million wallet users; the backbone for almost all Bitcoin web wallets in production today.
Features
- Clean: Pure JavaScript, concise code, easy to read.
- Tested: Coverage > 90%, third-party integration tests.
- Careful: Two person approval process for small, focused pull requests.
- Compatible: Works on Node.js and all modern browsers.
- Powerful: Support for advanced features, such as multi-sig, HD Wallets.
- Secure: Strong random number generation, PGP signed releases, trusted developers.
- Principled: No support for browsers with crap RNG (IE < 11)
- Standardized: Node community coding style, Browserify, Node's stdlib and Buffers.
- Fast: Optimized code, uses typed arrays instead of byte arrays for performance.
- Experiment-friendly: Bitcoin Mainnet and Testnet support.
- Altcoin-ready: Capable of working with bitcoin-derived cryptocurrencies (such as Dogecoin).
Should I use this in production?
If you are thinking of using the master branch of this library in production, stop.
Master is not stable; it is our development branch, and only tagged releases may be classified as stable.
If you are looking for the original, it is tagged as 0.1.3
. Unless you need it for dependency reasons, it is strongly recommended that you use (or upgrade to) the newest version, which adds major functionality, cleans up the interface, fixes many bugs, and adds over 1,300 more tests.
Installation
npm install bitcoinjs-lib
Setup
Node.js
var bitcoin = require('bitcoinjs-lib')
From the repo:
var bitcoin = require('./src/index.js')
Browser
From the repository: Compile bitcoinjs-min.js
with the following command:
$ npm run-script compile
From NPM:
$ npm -g install bitcoinjs-lib browserify uglify-js
$ browserify -r bitcoinjs-lib -s bitcoin | uglifyjs > bitcoinjs.min.js
After loading this file in your browser, you will be able to use the global bitcoin
object.
Examples
The below examples are implemented as integration tests, but should be very easy to follow. Pull requests welcome.
Projects utilizing BitcoinJS
Contributors
Stefan Thomas is the inventor and creator of this project. His pioneering work made Bitcoin web wallets possible.
Since then, many people have contributed. Click here to see the comprehensive list.
Daniel Cousens, Wei Lu, JP Richardson and Kyle Drake lead the major refactor of the library from 0.1.3 to 1.0.0.
Contributing
Join the ongoing IRC development channel at #bitcoinjs-dev
on Freenode.
We are always accepting of Pull requests, but we do adhere to specific standards in regards to coding style, test driven development and commit messages.
Please make your best effort to adhere to these when contributing to save on trivial corrections.
Running the test suite
$ npm test
$ npm run-script coverage
Complementing Libraries
- BIP39 - Mnemonic code for generating deterministic keys
- BIP38 - Passphrase-protected private keys
- BCoin - BIP37 / Bloom Filters / SPV client
- insight - A bitcoin blockchain API for web wallets.
Alternatives
License
This library is free and open-source software released under the MIT license.
Copyright
BitcoinJS (c) 2011-2014 Bitcoinjs-lib contributors
Released under MIT license