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Bitcoin Testing

Starting a Local Bitcoin Development Environment​

We have a docker-compose.yml setup script in the BOB repository.

The docker file will:

  • Run the Bitcoin daemon
  • Fund the "Alice" wallet
  • Mine a block every ten seconds
  • Start the Esplora backend to index the local chain and provide a REST API
  • Start the ord ordinals indexer, block explorer, and wallet

Using Bitcoin Core​

The recommended approach to start a local Bitcoin node for testing is to use "regtest" mode. If you have downloaded Bitcoin Core from bitcoin.org use the following to start a regtest node.

bitcoind -regtest -daemon

To stop the node, use the following command:

bitcoin-cli -regtest stop

Using Nigiri Bitcoin​

For an alternative development environment check out Nigiri Bitcoin which also packages a Liquid daemon and an Electrum server.

Funding a Wallet​

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This step is only required if you are not using the docker-compose.yml script.

To create and fund the "Alice" wallet, use the following bitcoin-cli commands:

bitcoin-cli -regtest createwallet Alice
ALICE_ADDRESS=$(bitcoin-cli -regtest -rpcwallet=Alice getnewaddress)
bitcoin-cli -regtest generatetoaddress 101 ${ALICE_ADDRESS}
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Funds from the coinbase transaction need 100 confirmations to be spendable, so make sure to mine a sufficient number of blocks. The command above mines 101 blocks, which is the minimum required for the funds to be spendable.

Transferring Funds​

To create and send funds to the "Bob" wallet, use the following commands:

bitcoin-cli -regtest createwallet Bob
BOB_ADDRESS=$(bitcoin-cli -regtest -rpcwallet=Bob getnewaddress)
bitcoin-cli -regtest -rpcwallet=Alice -named sendtoaddress address=${BOB_ADDRESS} amount=$(bitcoin-cli -regtest -rpcwallet=Alice getbalance) subtractfeefromamount=true

To use a supported Graphical User Interface (GUI) instead, terminate the bitcoind process and run bitcoin-qt instead:

Bitcoin Core Wallet GUI