README.rst

Bit: Bitcoin made easy.

Bit is Python's fastest Bitcoin library and was designed from the beginning to feel intuitive, be effortless to use, and have readable source code. It is heavily inspired by Requests and Keras.

Bit is so easy to use, in fact, you can do this:

>>> from bit import Key
>>>
>>> my_key = Key(...)
>>> my_key.get_balance('usd')
'12.51'
>>>
>>> # Let's donate!
>>> outputs = [
>>>     # Wikileaks
>>>     ('1HB5XMLmzFVj8ALj6mfBsbifRoD4miY36v', 0.0035, 'btc'),
>>>     # Internet Archive
>>>     ('1Archive1n2C579dMsAu3iC6tWzuQJz8dN', 190, 'jpy'),
>>>     # The Pirate Bay
>>>     ('129TQVAroeehD9fZpzK51NdZGQT4TqifbG', 3, 'eur'),
>>>     # xkcd
>>>     ('14Tr4HaKkKuC1Lmpr2YMAuYVZRWqAdRTcr', 2.5, 'cad')
>>> ]
>>>
>>> my_key.send(outputs)
'9f59f5c6757ec46fdc7440acbeb3920e614c8d1d247ac174eb6781b832710c1c'

Here is the transaction https://blockchain.info/tx/9f59f5c6757ec46fdc7440acbeb3920e614c8d1d247ac174eb6781b832710c1c.

Features

• Python's fastest available implementation (100x faster than closest library)
• Seamless integration with existing server setups
• Supports keys in cold storage
• Fully supports 25 different currencies
• First class support for storing data in the blockchain
• Deterministic signatures via RFC 6979
• Access to the blockchain (and testnet chain) through multiple APIs for redundancy
• Exchange rate API, with optional caching
• Optimal transaction fee API, with optional caching
• Compressed public keys by default
• Multiple representations of private keys; WIF, PEM, DER, etc.
• Legacy P2PKH and Segwit nested-P2WPKH transactions
• Legacy P2SH and Segwit nested-P2WSH transactions

If you are intrigued, continue reading. If not, continue all the same!

Installation

Bit is distributed on PyPI as a universal wheel and is available on Linux/macOS and Windows and supports Python 3.5+ and PyPy3.5-v5.7.1+. pip >= 8.1.2 is required.

$ pip install bit

Documentation

Docs are hosted by Github Pages and are automatically built and published by Travis after every successful commit to Bit's master branch.

Credits

• Logo courtesy of https://textcraft.net
• Gregory Maxwell (Bitcoin core dev) for teaching me a bit of ECC math
• arubi in #bitcoin for helping me understand transaction gotchas
• fuzeman for bestowing me the name bit on the Python Package Index