Send and Receive Bitcoin from Commandline
Sometimes you just need a simple or temporary wallet to send and receive crypto. In the example below we create a wallet and send bitcoiins with single line python commands. No need for complex software installation or time consuming backup procedures.
Make sure Python BitcoinLib is installed before you start.
pip install bitcoinlib
Create Wallet
Now lets create a wallet and get an address to receive Bitcoin Testnet coins.
>>> from bitcoinlib.wallets import Wallet
>>> w = Wallet.create("My Testnet Wallet", network="testnet")
>>> w.info()
=== WALLET ===
ID 3
Name My Testnet Wallet
Owner
Scheme bip32
Multisig False
Witness type legacy
Main network testnet
Latest update None
= Wallet Master Key =
ID 21
Private True
Depth 0
- NETWORK: testnet -
- - Keys
26 m/44'/1'/0'/0/0 mvrtuQvMhP79x4p4fPNChGopWoUvVttjUP address index 0 0.00000000 TBTC
- - Transactions Account 0 (0)
= Balance Totals (includes unconfirmed) =
Make a copy of the wallet private key in case anything goes wrong.
>>> w.main_key.wif
'tprv8ZgxMBicQKsPeTWfDcHDjngYVa8LR4VQnn4GtoJLXEtQYpRRkRt6TsqKp2nBRfnJt9vjUTREV8YpjPr8jecxNh1USymackFnAHnD7MEQo7r'
Receive Bitcoins
We have an address (mvrtuQvMhP79x4p4fPNChGopWoUvVttjUP) and we can receive bitcoins, so lets find a bitcoin faucet and see if we can get some testnet coins. Just Google for 'bitcoin testnet faucet' and see what you find. I used https://bitcoinfaucet.uo1.net/
The faucet will give you a transaction id, in this case 99f9a76d7b05c409ff4955ba7d91ee83a8835a9f9821c32ff2e987ab8a3fba85 Open any block explorer and you can see if the transaction is received by the network and wait until it confirms.
Let the wallet scan for transactions and see if you have received the testnet coins.
>>> w.scan(scan_gap_limit=1)
>>> w.info()
=== WALLET ===
ID 3
Name My Testnet Wallet
Owner
Scheme bip32
Multisig False
Witness type legacy
Main network testnet
Latest update 2022-10-07 09:52:56.606693
= Wallet Master Key =
ID 21
Private True
Depth 0
- NETWORK: testnet -
- - Keys
26 m/44'/1'/0'/0/0 mvrtuQvMhP79x4p4fPNChGopWoUvVttjUP address index 0 0.00010000 TBTC
28 m/44'/1'/0'/1/0 mtGdVm451fQYh4wQEoMWYAUm6JocHK9LZs address index 0 0.00000000 TBTC
29 m/44'/1'/0'/0/1 n1UDMjicDJ6c2Kuv8eHLcYrZUmGGXfH2Nu address index 1 0.00000000 TBTC
- - Transactions Account 0 (1)
99f9a76d7b05c409ff4955ba7d91ee83a8835a9f9821c32ff2e987ab8a3fba85 mvrtuQvMhP79x4p4fPNChGopWoUvVttjUP 1 0.00010000 TBTC U
= Balance Totals (includes unconfirmed) =
testnet (Account 0) 0.00010000 TBTC
Send Bitcoins
With a single line command we can send some bitcoins back to the faucet address:
>>> w.send_to('tb1ql7w62elx9ucw4pj5lgw4l028hmuw80sndtntxt', 1000, offline=False)
<WalletTransaction(input_count=1, output_count=2, status=unconfirmed, network=testnet)>
This creates a transaction and pushes it to the testnet network.
However in a normal situation we would like to check the transaction first before sending it.
>>> t = w.send_to('tb1ql7w62elx9ucw4pj5lgw4l028hmuw80sndtntxt', 1000)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
File "/home/lennart/.virtualenvs/bitcoinlib/lib/python3.8/site-packages/bitcoinlib/wallets.py", line 3928, in send_to
return self.send(outputs, input_key_id=input_key_id, account_id=account_id, network=network, fee=fee,
File "/home/lennart/.virtualenvs/bitcoinlib/lib/python3.8/site-packages/bitcoinlib/wallets.py", line 3863, in send
transaction = self.transaction_create(output_arr, input_arr, input_key_id, account_id, network, fee,
File "/home/lennart/.virtualenvs/bitcoinlib/lib/python3.8/site-packages/bitcoinlib/wallets.py", line 3528, in transaction_create
selected_utxos = self.select_inputs(amount_total_output + fee_estimate, transaction.network.dust_amount,
File "/home/lennart/.virtualenvs/bitcoinlib/lib/python3.8/site-packages/bitcoinlib/wallets.py", line 3381, in select_inputs
raise WalletError("Create transaction: No unspent transaction outputs found or no key available for UTXO's")
bitcoinlib.wallets.WalletError: Create transaction: No unspent transaction outputs found or no key available for UTXO's
Ah, nasty errors... This means the previous transaction is not confirmed yet.
Normally we would wait a little, but we are in a hurry, so we include the min_confirms=0 to be able to spent unconfirmed outputs.
>>> t = w.send_to('tb1ql7w62elx9ucw4pj5lgw4l028hmuw80sndtntxt', 1000, min_confirms=0)
>>> t.info()
Transaction 24f28bd6be541b61ff1b07b18b35dbc194c466d8671e86678ef812802170c4b1
Date: None
Network: testnet
Version: 1
Witness type: legacy
Status: new
Verified: True
Inputs
- mtGdVm451fQYh4wQEoMWYAUm6JocHK9LZs 0.00008773 tBTC 4c0807e0630b772b59db68d9d2b172e415cbdde0a0ea9180f40cbaacfbf34081 0
legacy sig_pubkey; sigs: 1 (1-of-1) valid
Outputs
- tb1ql7w62elx9ucw4pj5lgw4l028hmuw80sndtntxt 0.00001000 tBTC p2wpkh U
- mhBuzpdhpnb3uf8ZUSPHHsNxiLp1QJvQGs 0.00007546 tBTC p2pkh U
Size: 222
Vsize: 222
Fee: 227
Confirmations: None
Block: None
Pushed to network: False
Wallet: My Testnet Wallet
>>> t.send()
>>> t.info()
Transaction 24f28bd6be541b61ff1b07b18b35dbc194c466d8671e86678ef812802170c4b1
Date: None
Network: testnet
Version: 1
Witness type: legacy
Status: unconfirmed
Verified: True
Inputs
- mtGdVm451fQYh4wQEoMWYAUm6JocHK9LZs 0.00008773 tBTC 4c0807e0630b772b59db68d9d2b172e415cbdde0a0ea9180f40cbaacfbf34081 0
legacy sig_pubkey; sigs: 1 (1-of-1) valid
Outputs
- tb1ql7w62elx9ucw4pj5lgw4l028hmuw80sndtntxt 0.00001000 tBTC p2wpkh U
- mhBuzpdhpnb3uf8ZUSPHHsNxiLp1QJvQGs 0.00007546 tBTC p2pkh U
Size: 222
Vsize: 222
Fee: 227
Confirmations: 0
Block: None
Pushed to network: True
Wallet: My Testnet Wallet
So we created a transaction object, checked it and then send it with the Transaction.send() command. As you can see the transaction is pushed to the network and we received a transaction ID.
When the transactions are done and we are finished we can empty the wallet and sweep it to another wallet with a single command.
>>> w.sweep('tb1ql7w62elx9ucw4pj5lgw4l028hmuw80sndtntxt', offline=False, min_confirms=0)
<WalletTransaction(input_count=1, output_count=1, status=unconfirmed, network=testnet)>
>>> w.info()
=== WALLET ===
ID 3
Name My Testnet Wallet
Owner
Scheme bip32
Multisig False
Witness type legacy
Main network testnet
Latest update 2022-10-07 09:52:56.606693
= Wallet Master Key =
ID 21
Private True
Depth 0
- NETWORK: testnet -
- - Keys
29 m/44'/1'/0'/0/1 n1UDMjicDJ6c2Kuv8eHLcYrZUmGGXfH2Nu address index 1 0.00000000 TBTC
- - Transactions Account 0 (6)
99f9a76d7b05c409ff4955ba7d91ee83a8835a9f9821c32ff2e987ab8a3fba85 mvrtuQvMhP79x4p4fPNChGopWoUvVttjUP 2 0.00010000 TBTC
4c0807e0630b772b59db68d9d2b172e415cbdde0a0ea9180f40cbaacfbf34081 mvrtuQvMhP79x4p4fPNChGopWoUvVttjUP 0 -0.00010000 TBTC
4c0807e0630b772b59db68d9d2b172e415cbdde0a0ea9180f40cbaacfbf34081 mtGdVm451fQYh4wQEoMWYAUm6JocHK9LZs 0 0.00008773 TBTC
24f28bd6be541b61ff1b07b18b35dbc194c466d8671e86678ef812802170c4b1 mtGdVm451fQYh4wQEoMWYAUm6JocHK9LZs 0 -0.00008773 TBTC
24f28bd6be541b61ff1b07b18b35dbc194c466d8671e86678ef812802170c4b1 mhBuzpdhpnb3uf8ZUSPHHsNxiLp1QJvQGs 0 0.00007546 TBTC
97647f0530f810aa5eea5d1062f570f7ee581908c54b61ffb34de3595c49c2ee mhBuzpdhpnb3uf8ZUSPHHsNxiLp1QJvQGs 0 -0.00007546 TBTC
= Balance Totals (includes unconfirmed) =
testnet (Account 0) 0.00000000 TBTC
And it is empty!
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