[RFC] reporting addresses, listtransactions/gettransaction

[Gavin Andresen]

We're pretty close to being able to duplicate the bitcoin GUI using the RPC.

I think the only thing missing is reporting bitcoin addresses in listtransactions.  That gets a little sticky with multisends (one transactions that sends coins to multiple recipients); here's what I'm thinking of implementing after doing some brainstorming with theymos/jgarzik/nanotube in IRC chat and running a couple of 'multisend' tests on the test network:

Code:

"category" : "receive",
"amount" : amount,
"address" : "bitcoinaddress"

... plus the rest of what is reported now
(account/txid/confirmations/time/comment).  That's the "received on"
address, of course.

On the send side, I'm leaning towards:

Code:

"category" : "send",
"amount" : amount,
"fee" : fee,
"toaddress" : { "address" : amount }  #  or "toaddress" : { "address" : amount, "address" : amount } for a multisend.

... plus the rest of what is reported now
(account/txid/confirmations/time/comment).

I don't like that the common case looks kind of ugly; I'd much prefer
just

Code:

"address" : "bitcoinaddress"

That could be done by having listtransactions report multiple category:send entries for a multisend... except it is not obvious
which one should report the fee, if there is a fee.  First one?  All of them?

I'm also a worried that websites might get their accounting wrong if they're not prepared to deal with multisends; making "toaddress" an
Object makes it obvious that multisends are possible.  The only way a website would get a multisend would be if they allow users to import keys from their local bitcoin wallet, which nobody is doing... yet.


Here's how listtransactions currently reports a complex multisend:

Code:

   {
       "account" : "Test3",
       "category" : "receive",
       "amount" : 3.03000000,
       "confirmations" : 66,
       "txid" :
"36c86ca499275945a3f1805d6e070ac00b2d32e5e16a4c9cf2c83b189a347d88",
       "time" : 1292532062,
       "comment" : "multisend, Test1 to Test2 and Test3 twice (same addr)"
   },
   {
       "account" : "Test3",
       "category" : "receive",
       "amount" : 3.00000000,
       "confirmations" : 66,
       "txid" :
"36c86ca499275945a3f1805d6e070ac00b2d32e5e16a4c9cf2c83b189a347d88",
       "time" : 1292532062,
       "comment" : "multisend, Test1 to Test2 and Test3 twice (same addr)"
   },
   {
       "account" : "Test2",
       "category" : "receive",
       "amount" : 2.00000000,
       "confirmations" : 66,
       "txid" :
"36c86ca499275945a3f1805d6e070ac00b2d32e5e16a4c9cf2c83b189a347d88",
       "time" : 1292532062,
       "comment" : "multisend, Test1 to Test2 and Test3 twice (same addr)"
   },
   {
       "account" : "Test1",
       "category" : "send",
       "amount" : -8.03000000,
       "fee" : 0.00000000,
       "confirmations" : 66,
       "txid" :
"36c86ca499275945a3f1805d6e070ac00b2d32e5e16a4c9cf2c83b189a347d88",
       "time" : 1292532062,
       "comment" : "multisend, Test1 to Test2 and Test3 twice (same addr)"
   },

[genjix]

Could toaddresss be destination instead? I don't think having an object for toaddress is ugly- fine by me. It's just nit-picking. A lot less worse than the inconsistent naming scheme used.... (grumbles back to basement).

Code:

"toaddress" : { "address" : amount }

"address" "address" is redundant.

Code:

"destination" : { "address" : amount }

Now my code will read:
transaction["destination"]["address"]
Which reads exactly like the English:
transaction destination address

Clear, simple and logical.

However is category really that necessary? Amount is already + or -. Or is move also in there too?

BTW I don't see any addresses in that output you pasted.

[Gavin Andresen]

However is category really that necessary? Amount is already + or -. Or is move also in there too?

BTW I don't see any addresses in that output you pasted.

move is its own category (and may be + or -, never has a txid or fees).  And the output I pasted is what listtransactions does right now (it doesn't report bitcoin addresses).

After some private feedback, I'm now leaning towards listtransactions giving multiple category:send entries (with the same txid) for the multisend case.  That matches what is done for the category:receive end.  transaction fee... I think I'll do what is easiest to implement which is repeat it in all of them.

So the example would look like this, with three receives and three sends:

Code:

   {
       "account" : "Test3",
       "address" : "1aTest3blahblahblah9d87"
       "category" : "receive",
       "amount" : 3.03000000,
       "confirmations" : 66,
       "txid" :
"36c86ca499275945a3f1805d6e070ac00b2d32e5e16a4c9cf2c83b189a347d88",
       "time" : 1292532062,
       "comment" : "multisend, Test1 to Test2 and Test3 twice (same addr)"
   },
   {
       "account" : "Test3",
       "address" : "1aTest3blahblahblah9d87"
       "category" : "receive",
       "amount" : 3.00000000,
       "confirmations" : 66,
       "txid" :
"36c86ca499275945a3f1805d6e070ac00b2d32e5e16a4c9cf2c83b189a347d88",
       "time" : 1292532062,
       "comment" : "multisend, Test1 to Test2 and Test3 twice (same addr)"
   },
   {
       "account" : "Test2",
       "address" : "1aTest2blahblahblahQ9Qe"
       "category" : "receive",
       "amount" : 2.00000000,
       "confirmations" : 66,
       "txid" :
"36c86ca499275945a3f1805d6e070ac00b2d32e5e16a4c9cf2c83b189a347d88",
       "time" : 1292532062,
       "comment" : "multisend, Test1 to Test2 and Test3 twice (same addr)"
   },
   {
       "account" : "Test1",
       "address" : "1aTest3blahblahblah9d87"
       "category" : "send",
       "amount" : -3.03000000,
       "fee" : 0.00000000,
       "confirmations" : 66,
       "txid" :
"36c86ca499275945a3f1805d6e070ac00b2d32e5e16a4c9cf2c83b189a347d88",
       "time" : 1292532062,
       "comment" : "multisend, Test1 to Test2 and Test3 twice (same addr)"
   },
   {
       "account" : "Test1",
       "address" : "1aTest3blahblahblah9d87"
       "category" : "send",
       "amount" : -3.00000000,
       "fee" : 0.00000000,
       "confirmations" : 66,
       "txid" :
"36c86ca499275945a3f1805d6e070ac00b2d32e5e16a4c9cf2c83b189a347d88",
       "time" : 1292532062,
       "comment" : "multisend, Test1 to Test2 and Test3 twice (same addr)"
   },
   {
       "account" : "Test1",
       "address" : "1aTest2blahblahblahQ9Qe"
       "category" : "send",
       "amount" : -2.00000000,
       "fee" : 0.00000000,
       "confirmations" : 66,
       "txid" :
"36c86ca499275945a3f1805d6e070ac00b2d32e5e16a4c9cf2c83b189a347d88",
       "time" : 1292532062,
       "comment" : "multisend, Test1 to Test2 and Test3 twice (same addr)"
   },