Blockexplorer.com

[iamtheone]

If i create a bitcoin application that needs a blockchain, can i use blockexplorer.com rawdata? Can i reliably count on it? What are the alternatives?

[iamtheone]

Can anybody answer this question please?

[Stephen Gornick]

If i create a bitcoin application that needs a blockchain, can i use blockexplorer.com rawdata? Can i reliably count on it? What are the alternatives?

BlockExplorer has had numerous performance issues and site outages.  

It is not built to be the backend for a commercial application.

Blockchain.info provides many of the same capabilities, but that service too has experienced service level issues:
 - http://blockchain.info/api/json_rpc_api

Are you reluctant to hosting a blockchain locally (via bitcoind)?  

[iamtheone]

I am trying but my problem is i can't get the information where I wanted to know the address of the sender who sent me coins. I'm trying to create an application where I will automate sending coins from the address they use when they send to me. How can I do it? I saw the information in blockexplorer.com but not when I use my own local blockchain.

[Stephen Gornick]

I am trying but my problem is i can't get the information where I wanted to know the address of the sender who sent me coins. I'm trying to create an application where I will automate sending coins from the address they use when they send to me. How can I do it? I saw the information in blockexplorer.com but not when I use my own local blockchain.

The gettransaction API method will give you this info for a a specific transaction ID.

See:

  - http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/4458/153

[iamtheone]

Hi stephen,

I can't open the link

[iamtheone]

By the way, gettransaction only works if the transaction is from your wallet. Otherwise, there's an error.

[Stephen Gornick]

I can't open the link

Oops, sorry.  Fixed.

By the way, gettransaction only works if the transaction is from your wallet. Otherwise, there's an error.

v0.7 has a new method:

"get any transaction, even transactions that aren't in your wallet" functionality will be moved from gettransaction to a new 'getrawtransaction' API call, for two reasons:
1. It doesn't 'feel' right to mix the high-level info with the nitty-gritty low-level detail.
2. We think there's a potential for security vulnerabilities if there are existing services that assume that 'gettransaction txid' returns an error for any transaction not in the wallet (as it does in all previous releases).

So the new plan is to put the new functionality in a new RPC call:

getrawtransaction <txid> [verbose=0]   :  If verbose=0, returns a JSON string that is the hex-encoded, serialized transaction. That is the "machine readable, as concise as possible" use case.  If verbose=1, returns a JSON object with all the nitty-gritty details, to cover all the other use cases.

[iamtheone]

Hi,

I can't find v0.7 anywhere. Can you help me? Thank