lbcwallet

README

lbcwallet

lbcwallet is a daemon, which provides lbry wallet functionality for a single user.

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.

lbcwallet uses the m/44'/<coin type>'/<account>'/<branch>/<address index> HD path for all derived addresses, as described by BIP0044.

Due to the sensitive nature of public data in a BIP0032 wallet, lbcwallet 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.

Wallet clients can use one of two RPC servers:

1. 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.

2. An experimental gRPC server

   The gRPC server uses a new API built for lbcwallet, 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.

Security

We take security seriously. Please contact security regarding any security issues. Our PGP key is here if you need it.

Requirements

• Go 1.16 or newer.

• lbcwallet is not an SPV client and requires connecting to a local or remote lbcd for asynchronous blockchain queries and notifications over websockets.

  Full installation instructions can be found here.

To Build lbcwallet, lbcd, and lbcctl from Source

Install Go according to its installation instructions.

Build lbcwallet

git clone https://github.com/lbryio/lbcwallet
cd lbcwallet
go build .

To make the quick start guide self-contained, here's how we can build the lbcd and lbcctl

git clone https://github.com/lbryio/lbcd
cd lbcd

# build lbcd
go build .

# build lbcctl
go build ./cmd/lbcctl

Getting Started

The first time running the lbcwallet we need to create a new wallet.

./lbcwallet --create

Start a local instance of lbcd and have the lbcwallet connecting to it.

# Start a lbcd with its RPC credentials
./lbcd --txindex --rpcuser=lbcduser --rpcpass=lbcdpass

# Start a lbcwallet with its RPC credentials along with the lbcd's RPC credentials
# The default lbcd instance to conect to is already localhost:9245 so we don't need to specify it explicitly here.
./lbcwallet --username=rpcuser --password=rpcpass --lbcdusername=lbcduser --lbcdpassword=lbcdpass # --rpcconnect=localhost:9245

#
#             rpcuser/rpcpass                lbcduser/lbcdpass
# lbcctl  <-------------------> lbcwallet <--------------------> lbcd
#             RPC port 9244                   RPC port 9245
#

If the lbcd and lbcwallet use the same RPC credentials, we can skip the --lbcdusername and --lbcdpassword

./lbcd --txindex --rpcuser=rpcuser --rpcpass=rpcpass

./lbcwallet --username=rpcuser --password=rpcpass

#
#             rpcuser/rpcpass                rpcuser/rpcpass
# lbcctl  <-------------------> lbcwallet <--------------------> lbcd
#             RPC port 9244                   RPC port 9245
#

Note:

• lbcd and lbcwallet implements two disjoint sets of RPCs.
• lbcd serves RPC on port 9245 while lbcwallet on port 9244.
• lbcwallet can proxy non-wallet RPCs to its associated lbcd.

Examples of using lbcctl to interact with the setup via RPCs:

1. Calling non-wallet RPC directly on lbcd:

   ./lbcctl --rpcuser=rpcuser --rpcpass=rpcpass getblockcount
   
   #
   # lbcctl  <-- getblockcount() --> lbcd
   #             RPC port 9245      (handled)
   #
   

2. Calling wallet RPC on lbcwallet (using --wallet)

   ./lbcctl --rpcuser=rpcuser --rpcpass=rpcpass --wallet getbalance
   
   #
   # lbcctl  <-- getbalance() --> lbcwallet
   #             RPC port 9244    (handled)
   #
   

3. Calling non-wallet RPC on lbcwallet, which proxies it to lbcd:

   ./lbcctl --rpcuser=rpcuser --rpcpass=rpcpass --wallet getblockcount
   
   #
   # lbcctl  <-- getblockcount() --> lbcwallet <-- getblockcount() --> lbcd
   #             RPC port 9244       (proxied)     RPC port 9245
   #
   

Default Network and RPC Ports

Instance	mainnet	testet	regtest
lbcd Network	9246	19246	29246
lbcd RPC	9245	19245	29245
lbcwallet RPC	9244	19244	29244

Examples

./lbcctl                    getblockcount # port  9245
./lbcctl --wallet           getblockcount # port  9244
./lbcctl --testnet          getblockcount # port 19245
./lbcctl --wallet --regtest getblockcount # port 29244

Contributing

Contributions to this project are welcome, encouraged, and compensated. The integrated github issue tracker is used for this project. All pull requests will be considered.

License

lbcwallet is licensed under the liberal ISC License.