Libbitcoin

libbitcoin logo

Libbitcoin is a set of cross platform, open source C++ libraries for building bitcoin applications. The toolkit consists of libraries, examples, test and applications. The project was established on three principles:

• Privacy: Bitcoin should always remain as private as possible for its users.
• Scalability: Bitcoin built today with the future in mind.
• Integrity: No individual or group should have enough power over the network to compromise its original aims.

Status

Libbitcoin is actively maintained. Since version 2.0 the original projects of Libbitcoin, Obelisk and SX have been rationalized under a common repository, taxonomy and build system.

Libbitcoin includes the dedicated consensus library Libbitcoin Consensus. This library provides a clean interface to the 14 source files (and related headers) from Bitcoin Core considered consensus critical. It also includes Python and Java SWIG bindings. The use of this library is optional when building Libbitcoin Blockchain.

Signed single file binaries are available for Libbitcoin Explorer and Libbitcoin Server for Linux, OSX and Windows platforms. Extensive end-user and developer documentation is provided for Libbitcoin Explorer.

Libbitcoin repositories include standard Autotools builds supporting GCC and Clang as well as robust Visual Studio solutions. Linux and OSX builds are regularly tested on Travis-CI. The libraries can be built on ARM. Single file install scripts for Linux/OSX can download and build all dependencies and repositories.

Libbitcoin Libraries

• libbitcoin
• libbitcoin-blockchain
• libbitcoin-client
• libbitcoin-consensus
• libbitcoin-explorer
• libbitcoin-node
• libbitcoin-protocol
• libbitcoin-server

History

Libbitcoin was created by a community of open source developers led by Amir Taaki (genjix). It was the first full node re-implementation.

Libbitcoin was announced on July 21, 2011.

The related command line utility SubvertX (SX) was announced on November 2, 2011.

Obelisk was first released on January 6, 2014, with an update to SX and the second major release of Libbitcoin.

Eric Voskuil (evoskuil) redesigned SX in 2014 and released it as Libbitcoin Explorer (BX 2.0) on December 13, 2014.

Libbitcoin Server (BS 2.0) was released on On May 9th, 2015, replacing Obelisk. A blockchain redesign by genjix substantially improved query performance.

Early Contributors

• Amir Taaki (gengix)
• Robert Williamson (bobalot)
• Patrick Strateman (phantomcircuit)
• Denis Roio (jaromil)
• Luke Dashjr (luke-jr)

Projects Using Libbitcoin

• Airbitz
• BitSwapr
• Darkwallet
• OpenBazaar

See Also

• Bitcointalk
• http://libbitcoin.org
• IRC Web #darkwallet
• https://mailinglists.dyne.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/libbitcoin
• https://bitcoinmagazine.com/6234/what-libbitcoin-and-sx-are-and-why-they-matter
• http://blog.coinkite.com/post/97397052686/public-obelisk-server-for-the-community
• http://www.slideshare.net/swansontec/libbitcoin-slides
• https://github.com/aantonop/bitcoinbook/blob/develop/appdx-bx.asciidoc