btcd

btcd is an alternative full node bitcoin implementation written in Go (golang).

This project is currently under active development and is in a Beta state. It is extremely stable and has been in production use since October 2013.

It properly downloads, validates, and serves the block chain using the exact rules (including consensus bugs) for block acceptance as Bitcoin Core. We have taken great care to avoid btcd causing a fork to the block chain. It includes a full block validation testing framework which contains all of the 'official' block acceptance tests (and some additional ones) that is run on every pull request to help ensure it properly follows consensus. Also, it passes all of the JSON test data in the Bitcoin Core code.

It also properly relays newly mined blocks, maintains a transaction pool, and relays individual transactions that have not yet made it into a block. It ensures all individual transactions admitted to the pool follow the rules required by the block chain and also includes more strict checks which filter transactions based on miner requirements ("standard" transactions).

One key difference between btcd and Bitcoin Core is that btcd does NOT include wallet functionality and this was a very intentional design decision. See the blog entry here for more details. This means you can't actually make or receive payments directly with btcd. That functionality is provided by the btcwallet and Paymetheus (Windows-only) projects which are both under active development.

Requirements

Go 1.25 or newer.

Installation

https://github.com/btcsuite/btcd/releases

Linux/BSD/MacOSX/POSIX - Build from Source

• Install Go according to the installation instructions here: http://golang.org/doc/install

• Ensure Go was installed properly and is a supported version:

$ go version
$ go env GOROOT GOPATH

NOTE: The GOROOT and GOPATH above must not be the same path. It is recommended that GOPATH is set to a directory in your home directory such as ~/goprojects to avoid write permission issues. It is also recommended to add $GOPATH/bin to your PATH at this point.

• Run the following commands to obtain btcd, all dependencies, and install it:

$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/btcsuite/btcd
$ go install -v . ./cmd/...

• btcd (and utilities) will now be installed in $GOPATH/bin. If you did not already add the bin directory to your system path during Go installation, we recommend you do so now.

Updating

Linux/BSD/MacOSX/POSIX - Build from Source

• Run the following commands to update btcd, all dependencies, and install it:

$ cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/btcsuite/btcd
$ git pull
$ go install -v . ./cmd/...

Getting Started

btcd has several configuration options available to tweak how it runs, but all of the basic operations described in the intro section work with zero configuration.

Linux/BSD/POSIX/Source

$ ./btcd

IRC

• irc.libera.chat
• channel #btcd
• webchat

Issue Tracker

The integrated github issue tracker is used for this project.

Documentation

The documentation is a work-in-progress. It is located in the docs folder.

Release Verification

Please see our documentation on the current build/verification process for all our releases for information on how to verify the integrity of published releases using our reproducible build system.

License

btcd is licensed under the copyfree ISC License.