Bitcoin Practice

Abstract

In this chapter we will learn how to automate Bitcoin’s daemon with systemd, a software suite that provides service management facilities. It will help us create Raspberry Nodes that are more resilient to failures. We will also learn to communicate with Bitcoin nodes by utilizing packages and libraries written in Python and JavaScript. Although Bitcoin offers an easy-to-use graphical wallet, the real power lies in services that run behind it. The knowledge about its interfaces and commands should be part of every proper crypto-toolbelt. We will also learn to build our own Bitcoin Explorer by using an inexpensive, database-independent tool called btc-rpc-explorer. Following one of the golden rules in blockchains “Don’t trust. Verify.”, we should always strive to utilize the information that our own nodes provide. There is no need to rely on 3rd-party services, no matter how convenient they might be, because validating Full Nodes, like those we’re building here, offers everything we need to be independent actors in decentralized networks.