URL:
https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/2844Adding an HTTP REST API for bitcoind has been occasionally tossed about as a useful thing. Such an API would essentially provide a decentralized block explorer capability, enabling easy external access to transaction/address/block indices that we maintain.
The first two implemented API calls are simple, returning a block or TX given a simple query string based on block hash, e.g.
GET /rest/block/BLOCK-HASH
This can be easily accessed via command line cURL/wget utilities. Output formats -- binary, hex or json -- may be selected by append a "/json" or "/hex" suffix to the URL, e.g.
GET /rest/tx/TX-HASH/json
The general goal of the HTTP REST interface is to access unauthenticated, public blockchain information. There is no plan to add wallet interfacing/manipulation via this API.