readme.md

MultiSigBTC

About the project

MultiSigBTC is a project that is created in the context of the subject “Decentralized Technologies”, that take place in the master’s degree program "Data and Web Science" of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. It is developed from scratch by Kalyvas Emmanouil using the python library bitcoin-utils developed by Kostas Karasavvas.

What does MultiSigBTC do?

MultiSigBTC is a tool that can be used to create and maintain multi signature addresses that can be used to send and receive funds in the Bitcoin blockchain. A multi signature address, is an address that have m owners and requires n of them to agree upon a transaction. MultiSigBTC can theoretically create multi signature addresses with any m and n combination. Please note that this a an experimental tool that was not tested thoroughly (at least not yet) and it is not recommended using it on mainnet.

How to use?

Usage:

MultiSigBTC.py [--help] [-n {testnet,mainnet,regtest}] [-u RPCUSER] [-p RPCPASS] [-h HOST] [-o] command

Commands:

• create_new_address
• create_multisig_address
• create_multisig_transaction
• sign_multisig_transaction
• get_private_key
• get_signed_multisig_transaction
• get_address_balance
• send_transaction

Optional arguments:

	Description
--help	show help and exit
-n, --network	Set the network type we are working with. One of these values: {'regtest','testnet','mainnet'}. Default value is 'regtest'.
-u, --rpcuser	Set the the rpc user used to connect to the network
-p, --rpcpass	Set the rpc password used to connect to the network
-h, --host	Set thr host to connect to. By default localhost (127.0.0.1) is used.
-o , --output	Write results to file, can be combined with all the commands that return a result. Results are in JSON.

Command : create_new_address

MultiSigBTC.py create_new_address [-h] [-s SEED] [-t Address Type] keyName password

Description:

Create a new private-public key pair along with its legacy bitcoin address

Positional arguments:

	Description
keyName	The name of the key (can be anything, avoid create multiple keys with the same name)
password	Password to lock the private key (remember it, you need it to unlock it)

Optional arguments:

	Description
-h, --help	show help exit
-s SEED, --seed SEED	The seed used for the random generator (a specific seed produces the same address)
-t, --address_type	The type of the generated address (legacy or segwit)

Command : create_multisig_address

MultiSigBTC.py create_multisig_address [-h] [-t Address Type] signaturesRequired keyfile [keyfile ...]

Description :

Create a multi signature address given the public keys you want to be involved

Positional arguments:

	Description
signaturesRequired	Number of required signatures to unlock UTXO
keyfile	The file containing the key to be used for the multi signature address funds (can be created with the command create_new_address -o path). You can also privide the JSON result of create_new_address or name and public key pairs or any combination of the expected input formats.

Optional arguments:

	Description
-h, --help	show help and exit
-t, --address_type	The type of the generated address (legacy or segwit)

Command : create_multisig_transaction

MultiSigBTC.py create_multisig_transaction [-h] address amount fee multisigKeyFile

Description:

Create an unsigned multisignature transaction (Note: it needs to be signed by the owners with the command sign_transaction)

Positional arguments:

	Description
address	Address to send the transaction to
amount	Amount to spend
fee	Fee amount to pay
multisigKeyFile	The file containing the multi signature keys (can be created with create_multisig_address -o path). You can also provide the json result of create_multisig_address in place of multisigKeyFile

Optional arguments:

	Description
-h, --help	show help and exit

Command : sign_multisig_transaction

MultiSigBTC.py sign_multisig_transaction [-h] transactionFile addressFile password

Description :

Add a signature to a multisig transaction. Use to sign a transaction created with create_multisig_transaction. Please note that every time someone signs the transaction, the next person needs to sign the transaction using the previous result in order to maintain all the signatures

Positional arguments:

	Description
transactionFile	The file containing the details for the unsigned or partially signed transaction (can be created with create_multisig_transaction -o path). You can also provide the json result of create_multisig_transaction in place of transactionFile
addressFile	The file containing the encrypted private key (can becreated with create_new_address -o path) or the private key itself. If you provide the private key itself, you must give the key name in place of password. This is important for the order of the keys. The name of the key is defined durting the multisig address creation
password	The password to decrypt the private key or if you gave the private key itself you need to set the name of the key as defined during the multisig address generation

Optional arguments:

	Description
-h, --help	show help and exit

Command : get_private_key

MultiSigBTC.py get_private_key [-h] keyFile password

Desciption:

Decrypts a private key created with this script using the user password

Positional arguments:

	Description
keyFile	Key file containing private key (can be created with create_new_address -o path). In place of keyFile you can also put the encrypted private key string
password	Password used to lock the private key

Optional arguments:

	Description
-h, --help	show this help message and exit

Command : get_signed_multisig_transaction

MultiSigBTC.py get_signed_multisig_transaction [-h] transactionFile

Description:

Signs and returns the given transaction

Positional arguments:

	Description
transactionFile	The file containing the details for the transaction and the required signatures (can be created with -o path sign_multisig_transaction) You can also provide the json result of sign_multisig_transaction in place of transactionFile

Optional arguments:

	Description
-h, --help	show help and exit

Command : get_address_balance

MultiSigBTC.py get_address_balance [-h] addressFile

Description:

Get the balance of the given address

Positional arguments:

	Description
addressFile	A result file containing an address (the file can be cerated with create_new_address -o path or create_multisig_address -o path) You can also set the address string itself

Command : send_transaction

MultiSigBTC.py send_transaction [-h] transactionFile

Description:

Sends the transaction to the network

Positional arguments:

	Description
transactionFile	A file containing the signed transaction (the file can be cerated with get_signed_multisig_transaction -o path or get_signed_multisig_transaction -o path) You can also provide the signed transaction in raw hex format in place of transactionFile

Optional arguments:

	Description
-h, --help	show help and exit