Is there a remote Bitcoin API that doesn't require anything to be stored locally?

4

1

What I imagine is a trusted centralized server (say run by Mt. Gox or some other exchange), that exposes a simple medium/low level API (let's say in JSON):

  • getTransaction(fromAddress)
  • getTxDetails()
  • executeTransaction()
  • ...

I know BitcoinJ does't store the whole blockchain, but it does store and update the headers. The method I seek will save me the hassle of managing any local data except the actual keys/addresses.

I would not have to give this transaction my private key, but rather use some sort of Offline Transaction equivalent. Is there something close to this? Is somebody building this? (If not, someone should!)

ripper234

Posted 2011-12-28T21:57:27.063

Reputation: 25 192

This seems to be a start in this direction: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=55822.0

ripper234 2011-12-28T22:01:10.180

1

Is this the same question? Bitcoin over HTTP?

D.H. - bitcoin.se 2011-12-28T22:38:48.933

@D.H. - Might be. Still, I don't like how that question is formulated ... to me at least, it's a bit harder to understand it than my qusetion. What do you guys think?ripper234 2011-12-28T23:30:28.410

1Hmm, so you want something like a Blockchain Browser that provides data for addresses in your wallet (list of txs, and their details) and accept you sending your own txs, that you generate on your own client? Well, guess I'm slowly working on something like that...ThePiachu 2011-12-29T00:22:03.037

@ThePiachu - There seem to be several such efforts. The key point is that I want to run some minimal stateless code to generate transactions, and then forward this TX to the API. What are you working on? Care to share?ripper234 2011-12-29T07:32:39.560

@ripper234 I'm working on Bitcoin implementation in Go - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=55722.msg662703 . I'm aiming to handle standard Bitcoin messages as HTTP POSTs.

ThePiachu 2011-12-29T15:15:46.910

@ThePiachu - Nice, keep us posted.ripper234 2011-12-29T15:27:21.313

Answers

2

This question is a little old now. But you could use the blockchain.info JSON RPC api. It is designed to be compatible with the original Bitcoind implementation and most functions can operate without private keys.

http://blockchain.info/json_rpc_api

Ben Reeves

Posted 2011-12-28T21:57:27.063

Reputation: 2 848

Updated link: https://blockchain.info/api

Hut8 2015-04-29T02:42:42.447