List of Bitcoin blockchain APIs

[arnuschky]

We have just launched a new block explorer - smartbit.com.au

Our launch thread can be found here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1127817.0

A snippet of the API calls available:

Address with the biggest balance: https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/addresses?sort=balance&limit=1
Address with the most transactions: https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/addresses?sort=transaction_count&limit=1
Combined address balance with transactions (wallet style result): https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/address/3A1KUd5H4hBEHk4bZB4C3hGgvuXuVX7p7t,39coweGgC8CPZ6hYL1BBEfc1zqbSfHsprW/wallet
Block with the most transactions: https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/blocks?sort=transaction_count&limit=1
Get op-returns for a block: https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/block/365956/op-returns
Information on a mining pool and their mined blocks: https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/pool/BitFury
Open assets: https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/op-returns/open-asset
Proof of existence: https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/op-returns/proof-of-existence
Find output script types eg. multisig: https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/scripts/multisig
Find document hash via search: https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/search?q=8b03d5236a840e37c50c83c83e71e42eaee0230e4e4ac7889cde92d1cb1d25e9

Cheers!

I added you to the list. Let me know if there's anything missing.

[jspri3]

Just to add on to Charles comment Smartbit has the following features as well

1. Get tx data: given a tx hash, return its hex data (also for unconfirmed txs).

Couple options. For example here's how to to get the hex, based on the transaction hash :
https://www.smartbit.com.au/tx/bf3c9cf049c360fcd9e6af9e730478e0de5563167e283bfb29e8b012ae53b747/hex
https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/transaction/e0d4d2f1ec598fe237dced2132ed8e978da9f4708884b87a41e898b74a835fc1/hex

You can also decode the hex and get the response directly from bitcoin core which is quite cool!
https://www.smartbit.com.au/txs/decodetx

Or you can use the API to decode via POST (See API Playground)
https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/decodetx


2. Push tx: given a tx (as hex data), push or broadcast it to the network.

Just paste the hex in here:
https://www.smartbit.com.au/txs/pushtx
Or API as  POST method
https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/pushtx


If the hex is already in the blockchain, the api will respond with the relevant transaction id.

3. Get tx propagation: given an unconfirmed tx hash, returns an estimate % of nodes that have this tx in their mempool.

Smartbit has transaction propagation % across the network. You can see this live on any unconfirmed transaction.

Find a unconfirmed transaction here and go to its detail page. You'll see the propagtion percentage as its picked up across the network.
https://www.smartbit.com.au/txs/unconfirmed
https://api.smartbit.com.au/v1/blockchain/transaction/e0d4d2f1ec598fe237dced2132ed8e978da9f4708884b87a41e898b74a835fc1

The propagation field on the API is (along with double_spend).
"propagation": "1.0000",
"double_spend": false,

If more than one transaction tries to re spend an unspent transaction output, we'll flag the transaction as a double spend.


We've also built an API Playground. The playground allows anyone to interact with the API, changing any variables, and seeing the response via the interface. Perfect for testing and understanding how the Data API and websockets calls work.

API Playground here:

https://www.smartbit.com.au/docs


Would appreciate knowing if anyone uses the API Playground and feedback you may have?

[Kazimir]

BlockTrail has a `push tx` endpoint, the documentation is lacking a bit behind on some of the new features added;
https://api.blocktrail.com/v1/BTC/send-raw-tx?api_key
either POST a raw hex or JSON {hex: <rawhex>}

Great, thanks!

[Kazimir]

We have just launched a new block explorer - smartbit.com.au

Our launch thread can be found here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1127817.0

Wow, looks great! Both the web explorer as well as the API.
Also thanks to jspri3 for the detailed examples. Good stuff!

[neutraLTC]

BlockTrail has a `push tx` endpoint, the documentation is lacking a bit behind on some of the new features added;
https://api.blocktrail.com/v1/BTC/send-raw-tx?api_key
either POST a raw hex or JSON {hex: <rawhex>}

Great, thanks!

Yep, no problem! If you or anyone else for that matter have any more questions you can always PM me. Thanks 

[Kazimir]

Yep, no problem! If you or anyone else for that matter have any more questions you can always PM me. Thanks  

I've got another question

Does BlockTrail have a function (either in the API, or through the web UI) to decode a raw transaction (hex data) back into json data with inputs and outputs etc?
I mean something like http://btc.blockr.io/tx/push or https://blockchain.info/decode-tx or the decodetx function in smartbit's API.

Note that I can't always use a txid here, it has to be raw tx data, as this would also be used to verify or inspect txs before pushing them to the network.

[neutraLTC]

Yep, no problem! If you or anyone else for that matter have any more questions you can always PM me. Thanks  

I've got another question

Does BlockTrail have a function (either in the API, or through the web UI) to decode a raw transaction (hex data) back into json data with inputs and outputs etc?
I mean something like http://btc.blockr.io/tx/push or https://blockchain.info/decode-tx or the decodetx function in smartbit's API.

Note that I can't always use a txid here, it has to be raw tx data, as this would also be used to verify or inspect txs before pushing them to the network.

We recommend using a library to do so instead of using an API, it's faster and more reliable.
Our own SDKs use the following libs and we'd recommend these to anyone (we're also co-maintainers on these);

 - PHP: https://github.com/Bit-Wasp/bitcoin-lib-php (functional) or https://github.com/Bit-Wasp/bitcoin-php (OOP)
 - NodeJS: github.com/bitcoinjs/bitcoinjs-lib
 - Python: https://github.com/petertodd/python-bitcoinlib

[Kazimir]

We recommend using a library to do so instead of using an API, it's faster and more reliable.
Our own SDKs use the following libs and we'd recommend these to anyone (we're also co-maintainers on these);

Right, yes, I didn't think of that but good point. I'll look into the SDKs you suggested. Thx again!

[neutraLTC]

We recommend using a library to do so instead of using an API, it's faster and more reliable.
Our own SDKs use the following libs and we'd recommend these to anyone (we're also co-maintainers on these);

Right, yes, I didn't think of that but good point. I'll look into the SDKs you suggested. Thx again!

No problem. Let me know if you have any more questions.

[arnuschky]

Added bitgo and gem for high-level wallet providers.

[neutraLTC]

Added bitgo and gem for high-level wallet providers.

Any reason as to why Blocktrail is not there? We provide multi-sig, HD and webhooks.

[arnuschky]

Added bitgo and gem for high-level wallet providers.

Any reason as to why Blocktrail is not there? We provide multi-sig, HD and webhooks.

I am currently a bit unsure how to categorize the different bitcoin APIs and wallet services.
I should maybe revisit my categorization criteria and redo this list - at the moment it's a bit
vague. For example, your services provides obviously more integrated/high-level features than
a typical "data API" provider such as chain.com, but it's less high-level that for example
BitGo, right?

So maybe I'll just redo this list in form of a table of features rather than making up categories
that are to some extend arbitrary.

I am open for ideas - maybe a website would be a better option?

[btc_enigma]

Please consider adding blockonomics api to the list https://www.blockonomics.co/views/api.html

- Thanks

[neutraLTC]

Added bitgo and gem for high-level wallet providers.

Any reason as to why Blocktrail is not there? We provide multi-sig, HD and webhooks.

I am currently a bit unsure how to categorize the different bitcoin APIs and wallet services.
I should maybe revisit my categorization criteria and redo this list - at the moment it's a bit
vague. For example, your services provides obviously more integrated/high-level features than
a typical "data API" provider such as chain.com, but it's less high-level that for example
BitGo, right?

So maybe I'll just redo this list in form of a table of features rather than making up categories
that are to some extend arbitrary.

I am open for ideas - maybe a website would be a better option?

It's as high level as BitGo.

You could try making a website I guess.