Sending transactions is at the heart of BCH. BITBOX has been able to send transactions for a while but w/ BITBOX Cloud and REST taking shape we wanted to revisit the steps for sending transactions to show how to best leverage the new functionality.

Setup

Before we get started let’s create an HDNode and send it some satohis.

Mnemonic

First we generate a random 256 bit mnemonic.

let mnemonic = BITBOX.Mnemonic.generate(256)
// slam tag city glass asthma mention rich leader snake prevent fatal trick typical gallery scare sort clip wolf strike float dwarf just clip mail

Root seed

From that mnemonic we create a root seed buffer.

// root seed buffer
let rootSeed = BITBOX.Mnemonic.toSeed(mnemonic);

Master HD Node

With our root seed we can create a BIP32 master hd node. The 2nd argument is the network. pass in 'bitcoincash' for mainnet and 'testnet' for testnet.

// master HDNode
let masterHDNode = BITBOX.HDNode.fromSeed(rootSeed, 'bitcoincash');

Account

Next create a BIP44 account. The 2nd argument is the BIP44 HD path.

// HDNode of BIP44 account
let account = BITBOX.HDNode.derivePath(masterHDNode, "m/44'/145'/0'");

Change

Create the first external change address per BIP44.

// derive the first external change address HDNode which is going to spend utxo
let change = BITBOX.HDNode.derivePath(account, "0/0");

Cash Address

// get the cash address
let cashAddress = BITBOX.HDNode.toCashAddress(change);
// bitcoincash:qqn2yf5jzrhwr3magjps5muz30akqqgsm5q7wcgkga

Send some satoshis

Now we send a few satoshis to bitcoincash:qqn2yf5jzrhwr3magjps5muz30akqqgsm5q7wcgkga. You can see that at aeaadaa9e952bf9fe02db6f261f31db2ab42224c9c8da73d78e2978eca372594

With that all set up lets now look at leveraging BITBOX Cloud.

BITBOX Cloud

BITBOX Cloud is your ‘Blockchain as a Service.’ We recently started integrating w/ bitbox-cli so you can leverage BITBOX Cloud w/out any additional setup.

You can use Address.utxo to get back a list of uxto for an address

BITBOX.Address.utxo('bitcoincash:qqn2yf5jzrhwr3magjps5muz30akqqgsm5q7wcgkga').then((result) => {
  console.log(result);
  // [ { txid: 'aeaadaa9e952bf9fe02db6f261f31db2ab42224c9c8da73d78e2978eca372594',
  //   vout: 0,
  //   scriptPubKey: '76a91426a2269210eee1c77d44830a6f828bfb600110dd88ac',
  //   amount: 0.00006893,
  //   satoshis: 6893,
  //   height: 530048,
  //   confirmations: 1,
  //   legacyAddress: '14XGviVV31TudFn8TEkBduLFyLa8fwPE5G',
  //   cashAddress: 'bitcoincash:qqn2yf5jzrhwr3magjps5muz30akqqgsm5q7wcgkga' } ]

}, (err) => { console.log(err);
});

Now lets spend the utxo.

TransactionBuilder instance

First create an instance of TransactionBuilder. Note the 'bitcoincash' argument is optionnal and it will default to mainnet if you pass nothing in. Pass in 'testnet' to create testnet transactions. For this example we’ll use the mainnet.

// instance of transaction builder
let transactionBuilder = new BITBOX.TransactionBuilder('bitcoincash');

Original amount

Now get the original amount of satoshis from the utxo. This is returned from the call to BITBOX.Address.utxo.

// original amount of satoshis in vin
let originalAmount = result[0].satoshis;

And the index

Get the index of the vout which you want to spend.

// index of vout
let vout = result[0].vout;

Get the txid

Next get the txid of the uxto you want to spend

// txid of vout
let txid = result[0].txid;

Add the inputs

Now we’re ready to add the input to our transactionBuilder instance. First pass in the txid and next the vout index.

// add input with txid and index of vout
transactionBuilder.addInput(txid, vout);

Calculate the fee

Next use BitcoinCash.getByteCount to calculate the fee. Here we pass in 2 objects describing the type and number of inputs/outputs. For this example we have 1 P2PKH input and 1 P2PKH output.

// get byte count to calculate fee. paying 1 sat/byte
let byteCount = BITBOX.BitcoinCash.getByteCount({ P2PKH: 1 }, { P2PKH: 1 });
// 192

Calculate the fee

A transaction w/ 1 P2PKH input and 1 P2PKH output is 192 bytes. We subtract that from the original amount of satoshis to get a fee of 1 satoshi per byte.

// amount to send to receiver. It's the original amount - 1 sat/byte for tx size
let sendAmount = originalAmount - byteCount;

Add the output

Add the address where you want to send the satoshis and the send amount which is the original amount minus the 1 satoshi per byte.

// add output w/ address and amount to send
transactionBuilder.addOutput('bitcoincash:qpuax2tarq33f86wccwlx8ge7tad2wgvqgjqlwshpw', sendAmount);

Get the node’s keypair

Now get the change node’s keypair to sign the transaction.

// keypair
let keyPair = BITBOX.HDNode.toKeyPair(change);

Sign input

Sign the input. Pass in the index of the input you’re signing. In this case we only have 1 input so the index is 0. Next pass in the node’s keypair to sign the tx, a placeholder redeemScript var which isn’t needed here, the hash type which is SIGHASH_ALL and lastly the original amount of satoshis in the utxo which we’re spending.

// sign w/ HDNode
let redeemScript;
transactionBuilder.sign(0, keyPair, redeemScript, transactionBuilder.hashTypes.SIGHASH_ALL, originalAmount);

Build and get raw hex

Now build the transaction and get the raw hex.

// build tx
let tx = transactionBuilder.build();
// output rawhex
let hex = tx.toHex();
BITBOX.RawTransactions.sendRawTransaction(hex).then((result) => { console.log(result); }, (err) => { console.log(err); });

POST the transaction

Finally we’re ready to send our transaction to the BCH network.

// sendRawTransaction to running BCH node
BITBOX.RawTransactions.sendRawTransaction(hex).then((result) => { console.log(result); }, (err) => { console.log(err); });

All together now

// include BITBOX
let BITBOXCli = require('bitbox-cli/lib/bitbox-cli').default;

// Instantiate BITBOX and pass in creds for a full node.
let BITBOX = new BITBOXCli();

// create mnemonic
let mnemonic = 'slam tag city glass asthma mention rich leader snake prevent fatal trick typical gallery scare sort clip wolf strike float dwarf just clip mail';

// root seed buffer
let rootSeed = BITBOX.Mnemonic.toSeed(mnemonic);

// master HDNode
let masterHDNode = BITBOX.HDNode.fromSeed(rootSeed, 'bitcoincash');

// HDNode of BIP44 account
let account = BITBOX.HDNode.derivePath(masterHDNode, "m/44'/145'/0'");

// derive the first external change address HDNode which is going to spend utxo
let change = BITBOX.HDNode.derivePath(account, "0/0");

// get the cash address
let cashAddress = BITBOX.HDNode.toCashAddress(change);
// bitcoincash:qqn2yf5jzrhwr3magjps5muz30akqqgsm5q7wcgkga

BITBOX.Address.utxo('bitcoincash:qqn2yf5jzrhwr3magjps5muz30akqqgsm5q7wcgkga').then((result) => {
  console.log(result);
  // [ { txid: '51366a68d148f360c30714f878584ce534cad53e6827937c1040a18ef16f623e',
  //     vout: 0,
  //     scriptPubKey: '76a91426a2269210eee1c77d44830a6f828bfb600110dd88ac',
  //     amount: 0.00009613,
  //     satoshis: 9613,
  //     confirmations: 0,
  //     ts: 1527795652,
  //     legacyAddress: '14XGviVV31TudFn8TEkBduLFyLa8fwPE5G',
  //     cashAddress: 'bitcoincash:qqn2yf5jzrhwr3magjps5muz30akqqgsm5q7wcgkga' } ]

  // instance of transaction builder
  let transactionBuilder = new BITBOX.TransactionBuilder('bitcoincash');
  // original amount of satoshis in vin

  let originalAmount = result[0].satoshis;

  // index of vout
  let vout = result[0].vout;

  // txid of vout
  let txid = result[0].txid;

  // add input with txid and index of vout
  transactionBuilder.addInput(txid, vout);

  // get byte count to calculate fee. paying 1 sat/byte
  let byteCount = BITBOX.BitcoinCash.getByteCount({ P2PKH: 1 }, { P2PKH: 1 });
  // 192

  // amount to send to receiver. It's the original amount - 1 sat/byte for tx size
  let sendAmount = originalAmount - byteCount;

  // add output w/ address and amount to send
  transactionBuilder.addOutput('bitcoincash:qpuax2tarq33f86wccwlx8ge7tad2wgvqgjqlwshpw', sendAmount);

  // keypair
  let keyPair = BITBOX.HDNode.toKeyPair(change);

  // sign w/ HDNode
  let redeemScript;
  transactionBuilder.sign(0, keyPair, redeemScript, transactionBuilder.hashTypes.SIGHASH_ALL, originalAmount);

  // build tx
  let tx = transactionBuilder.build();
  // output rawhex
  let hex = tx.toHex();

  // sendRawTransaction to running BCH node
  BITBOX.RawTransactions.sendRawTransaction(hex).then((result) => { console.log(result); }, (err) => { console.log(err); });
}, (err) => { console.log(err);
});

Success

If we did that correct we should get back a txid 1549abf70bf1f59618d650d72bb71711ef62e53e30138e326aab996ab6e54bb3.

Summary

This was to show step by step how to create a mnemonic, root seed, master node, bip44 account and bip44 change node. It showed how to create a cash address.

Once you have utxo which are spendable it showed how to call BITBOX Cloud via BITBOX.Address.utxo to get back a list of spendable utxo.

It next showed how to build a transaction, sign it and POST it to the BCH network.

If your app needs to send BCH transactions BITBOX is the tool and this tutorial shows you how to make it happen.