Bch Explorer API

A Bitcoin Cash blockchain REST and web socket API service for Bch Node.

This is a backend-only service. If you're looking for the web frontend application, take a look at https://github.com/owstack/ows-explorer.

Getting Started

npm install -g bch-node@latest
bch-node create mynode
cd mynode
bch-node install bch-explorer-api
bch-node start

The API endpoints will be available by default at: http://localhost:3001/bch-explorer-api/

Prerequisites

• Bch Node

Note: You can use an existing Bitcoin Cash data directory, however txindex, addressindex, timestampindex and spentindex needs to be set to true in bitcoin.conf, as well as a few other additional fields.

Query Rate Limit

To protect the server, explorer-api has a built it query rate limiter. It can be configurable in bch-node.json with:

  "servicesConfig": {
    "explorer-api": {
      "rateLimiterOptions": {
        "whitelist": ["::ffff:127.0.0.1"]
      }
    }
  }

With all the configuration options available: https://github.com/owstack/bch-explorer-api/blob/master/lib/ratelimiter.js#L10-17

Or disabled entirely with:

  "servicesConfig": {
    "explorer-api": {
      "disableRateLimiter": true
    }
  }

API HTTP Endpoints

Block

  /explorer-api/block/[:hash]
  /explorer-api/block/00000000a967199a2fad0877433c93df785a8d8ce062e5f9b451cd1397bdbf62

Block Index

Get block hash by height

  /explorer-api/block-index/[:height]
  /explorer-api/block-index/0

This would return:

{
  "blockHash":"000000000019d6689c085ae165831e934ff763ae46a2a6c172b3f1b60a8ce26f"
}

which is the hash of the Genesis block (0 height)

Raw Block

  /explorer-api/rawblock/[:blockHash]
  /explorer-api/rawblock/[:blockHeight]

This would return:

{
  "rawblock":"blockhexstring..."
}

Block Summaries

Get block summaries by date:

  /explorer-api/blocks?limit=3&blockDate=2016-04-22

Example response:

{
  "blocks": [
    {
      "height": 408495,
      "size": 989237,
      "hash": "00000000000000000108a1f4d4db839702d72f16561b1154600a26c453ecb378",
      "time": 1461360083,
      "txlength": 1695,
      "poolInfo": {
        "poolName": "BTCC Pool",
        "url": "https://pool.btcc.com/"
      }
    }
  ],
  "length": 1,
  "pagination": {
    "next": "2016-04-23",
    "prev": "2016-04-21",
    "currentTs": 1461369599,
    "current": "2016-04-22",
    "isToday": true,
    "more": true,
    "moreTs": 1461369600
  }
}

Transaction

  /explorer-api/tx/[:txid]
  /explorer-api/tx/525de308971eabd941b139f46c7198b5af9479325c2395db7f2fb5ae8562556c
  /explorer-api/rawtx/[:rawid]
  /explorer-api/rawtx/525de308971eabd941b139f46c7198b5af9479325c2395db7f2fb5ae8562556c

Address

  /explorer-api/addr/[:addr][?noTxList=1][&from=&to=]
  /explorer-api/addr/mmvP3mTe53qxHdPqXEvdu8WdC7GfQ2vmx5?noTxList=1
  /explorer-api/addr/mmvP3mTe53qxHdPqXEvdu8WdC7GfQ2vmx5?from=1000&to=2000

Address Properties

  /explorer-api/addr/[:addr]/balance
  /explorer-api/addr/[:addr]/totalReceived
  /explorer-api/addr/[:addr]/totalSent
  /explorer-api/addr/[:addr]/unconfirmedBalance

The response contains the value in Satoshis.

Unspent Outputs

  /explorer-api/addr/[:addr]/utxo

Sample return:

[
  {
    "address":"mo9ncXisMeAoXwqcV5EWuyncbmCcQN4rVs",
    "txid":"d5f8a96faccf79d4c087fa217627bb1120e83f8ea1a7d84b1de4277ead9bbac1",
    "vout":0,
    "scriptPubKey":"76a91453c0307d6851aa0ce7825ba883c6bd9ad242b48688ac",
    "amount":0.000006,
    "satoshis":600,
    "confirmations":0,
    "ts":1461349425
  },
  {
    "address": "mo9ncXisMeAoXwqcV5EWuyncbmCcQN4rVs",
    "txid": "bc9df3b92120feaee4edc80963d8ed59d6a78ea0defef3ec3cb374f2015bfc6e",
    "vout": 1,
    "scriptPubKey": "76a91453c0307d6851aa0ce7825ba883c6bd9ad242b48688ac",
    "amount": 0.12345678,
    "satoshis: 12345678,
    "confirmations": 1,
    "height": 300001
  }
]

Unspent Outputs for Multiple Addresses

GET method:

  /explorer-api/addrs/[:addrs]/utxo
  /explorer-api/addrs/2NF2baYuJAkCKo5onjUKEPdARQkZ6SYyKd5,2NAre8sX2povnjy4aeiHKeEh97Qhn97tB1f/utxo

POST method:

  /explorer-api/addrs/utxo

POST params:

addrs: 2NF2baYuJAkCKo5onjUKEPdARQkZ6SYyKd5,2NAre8sX2povnjy4aeiHKeEh97Qhn97tB1f

Transactions by Block

  /explorer-api/txs/?block=HASH
  /explorer-api/txs/?block=00000000fa6cf7367e50ad14eb0ca4737131f256fc4c5841fd3c3f140140e6b6

Transactions by Address

  /explorer-api/txs/?address=ADDR
  /explorer-api/txs/?address=mmhmMNfBiZZ37g1tgg2t8DDbNoEdqKVxAL

Transactions for Multiple Addresses

GET method:

  /explorer-api/addrs/[:addrs]/txs[?from=&to=]
  /explorer-api/addrs/2NF2baYuJAkCKo5onjUKEPdARQkZ6SYyKd5,2NAre8sX2povnjy4aeiHKeEh97Qhn97tB1f/txs?from=0&to=20

POST method:

  /explorer-api/addrs/txs

POST params:

addrs: 2NF2baYuJAkCKo5onjUKEPdARQkZ6SYyKd5,2NAre8sX2povnjy4aeiHKeEh97Qhn97tB1f
from (optional): 0
to (optional): 20
noAsm (optional): 1 (will omit script asm from results)
noScriptSig (optional): 1 (will omit the scriptSig from all inputs)
noSpent (option): 1 (will omit spent information per output)

Sample output:

{ totalItems: 100,
  from: 0,
  to: 20,
  items:
    [ { txid: '3e81723d069b12983b2ef694c9782d32fca26cc978de744acbc32c3d3496e915',
       version: 1,
       locktime: 0,
       vin: [Object],
       vout: [Object],
       blockhash: '00000000011a135e5277f5493c52c66829792392632b8b65429cf07ad3c47a6c',
       confirmations: 109367,
       time: 1393659685,
       blocktime: 1393659685,
       valueOut: 0.3453,
       size: 225,
       firstSeenTs: undefined,
       valueIn: 0.3454,
       fees: 0.0001 },
      { ... },
      { ... },
      ...
      { ... }
    ]
 }

Note: if pagination params are not specified, the result is an array of transactions.

Transaction Broadcasting

POST method:

  /explorer-api/tx/send

POST params:

  rawtx: "signed transaction as hex string"

  eg

  rawtx: 01000000017b1eabe0209b1fe794124575ef807057c77ada2138ae4fa8d6c4de0398a14f3f00000000494830450221008949f0cb400094ad2b5eb399d59d01c14d73d8fe6e96df1a7150deb388ab8935022079656090d7f6bac4c9a94e0aad311a4268e082a725f8aeae0573fb12ff866a5f01ffffffff01f0ca052a010000001976a914cbc20a7664f2f69e5355aa427045bc15e7c6c77288ac00000000

POST response:

  {
      txid: [:txid]
  }

  eg

  {
      txid: "c7736a0a0046d5a8cc61c8c3c2821d4d7517f5de2bc66a966011aaa79965ffba"
  }

Historic Blockchain Data Sync Status

  /explorer-api/sync

Live Network P2P Data Sync Status

  /explorer-api/peer

Status of the Bitcoin Network

  /explorer-api/status?q=xxx

Where "xxx" can be:

• getInfo
• getDifficulty
• getBestBlockHash
• getLastBlockHash

Utility Methods

  /explorer-api/utils/estimatefee[?nbBlocks=2]

Web Socket API

The web socket API is served using socket.io.

The following are the events published by explorer:

tx: new transaction received from network. This event is published in the 'inv' room. Data will be a app/models/Transaction object. Sample output:

{
  "txid":"00c1b1acb310b87085c7deaaeba478cef5dc9519fab87a4d943ecbb39bd5b053",
  "processed":false
  ...
}

block: new block received from network. This event is published in the inv room. Data will be a app/models/Block object. Sample output:

{
  "hash":"000000004a3d187c430cd6a5e988aca3b19e1f1d1727a50dead6c8ac26899b96",
  "time":1389789343,
  ...
}

<bitcoinAddress>: new transaction concerning received from network. This event is published in the <bitcoinAddress> room.

status: every 1% increment on the sync task, this event will be triggered. This event is published in the sync room.

Sample output:

{
  blocksToSync: 164141,
  syncedBlocks: 475,
  upToExisting: true,
  scanningBackward: true,
  isEndGenesis: true,
  end: "000000000933ea01ad0ee984209779baaec3ced90fa3f408719526f8d77f4943",
  isStartGenesis: false,
  start: "000000009f929800556a8f3cfdbe57c187f2f679e351b12f7011bfc276c41b6d"
}

Example Usage

The following html page connects to the socket.io explorer API and listens for new transactions.

html

<html>
<body>
  <script src="http://<explorer-server>:<port>/socket.io/socket.io.js"></script>
  <script>
    eventToListenTo = 'tx'
    room = 'inv'

    var socket = io("http://<explorer-server>:<port>/");
    socket.on('connect', function() {
      // Join the room.
      socket.emit('subscribe', room);
    })
    socket.on(eventToListenTo, function(data) {
      console.log("New transaction received: " + data.txid)
    })
  </script>
</body>
</html>

License

(The MIT License)

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the 'Software'), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED 'AS IS', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.