bchwallet

bchwallet is a daemon handling bitcoin cash wallet functionality for a single user. It acts as both an RPC client to bchd and an RPC server for wallet clients and legacy RPC applications.

Public and private keys are derived using the hierarchical deterministic format described by BIP0032. Unencrypted private keys are not supported and are never written to disk. bchwallet uses the m/44'/<coin type>'/<account>'/<branch>/<address index> HD path for all derived addresses, as described by BIP0044. The default general derivation path for a fresh wallet is as follows:

mainnet: m/44'/145'/0' (if you are not sure, this is what you need)
testnet: m/44'/1'/0'
simnet: m/44'/115'/0'

Due to the sensitive nature of public data in a BIP0032 wallet, bchwallet provides the option of encrypting not just private keys, but public data as well. This is intended to thwart privacy risks where a wallet file is compromised without exposing all current and future addresses (public keys) managed by the wallet. While access to this information would not allow an attacker to spend or steal coins, it does mean they could track all transactions involving your addresses and therefore know your exact balance. In a future release, public data encryption will extend to transactions as well.

bchwallet is not an SPV client and requires connecting to a local or remote bchd instance for asynchronous blockchain queries and notifications over websockets. Full bchd installation instructions can be found here. An alternative SPV mode that is compatible with bchd and Bitcoin Core is planned for a future release.

Wallet clients can use one of two RPC servers:

A legacy JSON-RPC server mostly compatible with Bitcoin Core

The JSON-RPC server exists to ease the migration of wallet applications from Core, but complete compatibility is not guaranteed. Some portions of the API (and especially accounts) have to work differently due to other design decisions (mostly due to BIP0044). However, if you find a compatibility issue and feel that it could be reasonably supported, please report an issue. This server is enabled by default.
An experimental gRPC server

The gRPC server uses a new API built for bchwallet, but the API is not stabilized and the server is feature gated behind a config option (--experimentalrpclisten). If you don't mind applications breaking due to API changes, don't want to deal with issues of the legacy API, or need notifications for changes to the wallet, this is the RPC server to use. The gRPC server is documented here.

Installation and updating

Windows - MSIs Available

Install the latest MSIs available here:

https://github.com/gcash/bchd/releases

https://github.com/gcash/bchwallet/releases

Windows/Linux/BSD/POSIX - Build from source

Building or updating from source requires the following build dependencies:

Go 1.16.4 and greater

Installation instructions can be found here: http://golang.org/doc/install. It is recommended to add $GOPATH/bin to your PATH at this point.

Getting the source:

go get github.com/gcash/bchwallet

Building/Installing:

The go tool is used to build or install (to GOPATH) the project. Some example build instructions are provided below (all must run from the bchwallet project directory).

To build and install bchwallet and all helper commands (in the cmd directory) to $GOPATH/bin/, as well as installing all compiled packages to $GOPATH/pkg/ (use this if you are unsure which command to run):

go install . ./cmd/...

To build a bchwallet executable and install it to $GOPATH/bin/:

go install

To build a bchwallet executable and place it in the current directory:

go build

Getting Started

The following instructions detail how to get started with bchwallet connecting to a localhost bchd. Commands should be run in cmd.exe or PowerShell on Windows, or any terminal emulator on *nix.

Run the following command to start bchd:

bchd -u rpcuser -P rpcpass

Run the following command to create a wallet:

bchwallet -u rpcuser -P rpcpass --create

Run the following command to start bchwallet:

bchwallet -u rpcuser -P rpcpass

Now you can run wallet commands through the bchctl command:

$ bchctl --listcommands

$ bchctl -u rpcuser -P rpcpass --wallet getnewaddress

If everything appears to be working, it is recommended at this point to copy the sample bchd and bchwallet configurations and update with your RPC username and password. Then you can use commands without providing the username and password with every command.

PowerShell (Installed from MSI):

PS> cp "$env:ProgramFiles\Gcash\Bchd\sample-bchd.conf" $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Btcd\bchd.conf
PS> cp "$env:ProgramFiles\Gcash\Bchwallet\sample-bchwallet.conf" $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Bchwallet\bchwallet.conf
PS> $editor $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Bchd\bchd.conf
PS> $editor $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Bchwallet\bchwallet.conf

PowerShell (Installed from source):

PS> cp $env:GOPATH\src\github.com\gcash\bchd\sample-bchd.conf $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Bchd\bchd.conf
PS> cp $env:GOPATH\src\github.com\gcash\bchwallet\sample-bchwallet.conf $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Bchwallet\bchwallet.conf
PS> $editor $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Bchd\bchd.conf
PS> $editor $env:LOCALAPPDATA\Bchwallet\bchwallet.conf

Linux/BSD/POSIX (Installed from source):

$ cp $GOPATH/src/github.com/gcash/bchd/sample-bchd.conf ~/.bchd/bchd.conf
$ cp $GOPATH/src/github.com/gcash/bchwallet/sample-bchwallet.conf ~/.bchwallet/bchwallet.conf
$ $EDITOR ~/.bchd/bchd.conf
$ $EDITOR ~/.bchwallet/bchwallet.conf

Issue Tracker

The integrated github issue tracker is used for this project.

Security Disclosures

To report security issues please contact:

Chris Pacia (ctpacia@gmail.com) - GPG Fingerprint: 0150 2502 DD3A 928D CE52 8CB9 B895 6DBF EE7C 105C

Josh Ellithorpe (quest@mac.com) - GPG Fingerprint: B6DE 3514 E07E 30BB 5F40 8D74 E49B 7E00 0022 8DDD

License

bchwallet is licensed under the liberal ISC License.