Release notes

Notable changes to the codebase are documented here.

Release names follow calendar versioning: full year, short month, short day (YYYY-M-D)

v2023.8 (work in progress, not released yet)

Major changes includes:

  • dropped python 3.7 support

v2023.7.12

This is the last release supporting py37.

Major changes include:

  • added first draft implementation of descriptors

  • added first draft implementation of script engine

  • added taproot psbt fields

  • improved bip32 derivation (speeded-up, added one more test)

  • supported py3.12 with btclib_libsecp256k1

  • updated toolchain

v2023.5.30

Major changes include:

  • Fix circular import between script and b32

v2023.2.3

Major changes include:

  • enabled libsecp256k1 by default

  • improved documentation

  • used generic containers (Sequence instead of list, Mapping instead of dict) where possible

v2023.1.17

Major changes include:

  • exported names per module (bip32, block, ec, ecc, mnemonic, psbt, script, tx)

  • added join_psbts and join_txs

  • refactored bip340_nonce

  • improved integration of libsecp256k1

  • added secp256k1-py test vectors

  • improved typing

  • added SECURITY, CONTRIBUTING, bug report and feature request templates

  • added pre-commit hooks

  • adopted mypy –strict and from __future__ import annotations

v2022.12.31

Major changes include:

  • add support for PSBT’s taproot fields (bip370)

  • added support for Python 3.11

  • fixed the OpenSSL 3.x RIPEMD160 issue in btclib/hashes.py

  • added CONTRIBUTING and SECURITY

  • solved issue #73 Re-import Tx subclasses into btclib.tx

v2022.7.20

Major changes include:

  • by default ssa, dsa and point multiplication are now sped up using btclib_libsecp256k1; this provides an 8 times speed up in benchmarks and 3 times in real world applications.

v2022.5.3

Major changes includes:

  • dropped python 3.6 support

  • added support for btclib_libsecp256k1

  • the hashes.fingerprint function, removed in the previous version, has been reinstated in the to_pub_key module

  • encode_num and decode_num have been moved from script.op_codes to utils

  • op_pushdata and op_str have been renamed to serialize_bytes_command and serialize_str_command

  • script.op_codes has been removed and its functions merged in script

  • script serialization is now more consistent: all integers, even small ones, are now considered like bytes. To put small integers on the stack OP_X must be used explicitly. Using integers directly will lead to larger scripts that will be likely to be rejected by the network as not standard

  • check_validity is now correctly propagated inside each function

v2022.2.9

This is the latest release to support python 3.6

Major changes includes:

  • added bech32m

  • added Taproot support

  • introduced ScriptPubKey class

  • used script_type instead of prefix/wit_ver for b58/b32 address functions

  • split up op_int in op_num and op_int

  • prevented bip32 account derivation with arbitrarily high index

  • ensured der.Sig.r is congruent to a valid x-coordinate

  • renamed ScriptToken as Command

  • moved witness and script_pub_key into script folder

  • removed dataclasses_json dependency

  • introduced submodules

  • renamed Tx.tx_id as Tx.id

  • renamed deserialize as parse

  • renamed signature functions: trailing underscore marks hash-reduced versions

  • updated BIP32 test vectors

  • moved continuous testing from TravisCI to Github Actions

  • simplified configuration files

  • fixed pylint and flake8 warnings

v2020.12.19

Major changes includes:

  • added secp256k1 point multiplication based on efficient endomorphism

  • fixed ssa batch verification functions’ logic

  • enforced snake_case variable naming convention, e.g. ‘script_pub_key’, etc.

  • added BIP32KeyOrigin, BIP32KeyPath, and BIP32KeyPaths

  • adopted str instead of bytes as default type for BIP32 keys, bms sigs, PSBTs, addresses, and WIFs; base58 and bech32 encodings keep returning bytes, like base64

  • cleaned up and refactored all dataclasses, now using serialize/deserialized and possibly b58encode/b58decode, b64encode/b64decode, etc.

  • renamed TxIn.witness as TxIn.script_witness

  • fixed Witness management in TxIn and Tx, including equality operator

  • consolidated sig_hash code into sig_hash module

  • added more script_pub_key functions: assert_p2pkh, is_p2pkh, etc.

v2020.11.23

Major changes includes:

  • updated BIP340 (Schnorr signature) implementation as per the latest changes in bitcoin core

  • refactored PsbtIn, PsbtOut, and Psbt

  • added legacy sighash

  • made btclib compatible with python 3.6

  • ssa.det_nonce now returns an int

  • moved tagged_hash from ssa into hashes module

  • added CurveGroup._y_aff_from_jac and removed unused methods

  • discontinued y_odd in favor of y_even as y-simmetry tiebreaker criterium

  • removed nonce input from dsa.sign and ssa.sign (only available from _sign functions)

  • cleaned up Exception handling, avoided bare/broad except

  • introduced btclib Exceptions that can be discriminated from regular Exceptions

v2020.11.10

Major changes includes:

  • removed TypedDict in favor of dataclass; this also restored the ability of using btclib with python 3.7

  • introduced dataclasses_json as requirement, used to serialize to file the json representation of dataclasses

  • Network is now a dataclass

  • bip32: BIP32KeyData is now a dataclass instead of dict, its data member have to be accessed accordingly. Consequently, where previously it was bip32.deserialize(xkey), now it is bip32.BIP32KeyData.deserialize(xkey)

  • bip32: added str_from_bip32_path and bytes_from_bip32_path

  • bip3: made bip32 index an int (not bytes) to avoid byteorder ambiguity. Consequently, where previously it was xkey_dict[“index”][0] < 0x80, now it is xkey_dict.index < 0x80000000

  • bip32: local “./” derivation, opposed to absolute “m/” derivation, is not available anymore

  • bip32: indexes_from_bip32_path now returns list[int] instead of Tuple[list[bytes], bool] losing the “absolute derivation” bool

  • bms: serialize/deserialize have been renamed encode/decode as they include the base64 (de)encoding, not jut the plain (de)serialization

  • Block: fixed bug in difficulty calculation

  • introduced first beta version of HdKeyPaths, PartialSigs, PsbtIn, PsbtOut, and Psbt data classes and their associated helper functions

  • refactored Diffie-Hellman and ANSI-X9.63-KDF

  • introduced assorted elliptic curve point multiplication algorithms

  • script: renamed Token as ScriptToken

  • script: encode/decode have been renamed as serialize/deserialize as they were not encoding at all; the previous serialize/deserialize which had varint(len()) before serialized data are not available anymore

  • alias: few definitions have moved in their relevant modules from which they can be imported

  • pytest: enforced pytest > 6

  • pytest: using as many processes as the available CPU cores

v2020.8.21

Major changes includes:

  • added BlockHeader and Block data classes

  • added OutPoint, TxIn, TxOut, and TX data classes

  • added segwit_v0 sighash

  • added PsbtIn, PbstOut, and Psbt data classes for partially signed bitcoin transactions (BIP174)

  • moved from unitest to pytest, including revision of error messages and tests’ logic

v2020.5.11

Major changes includes:

  • switched to tox testing, gradually moving to pytest testing (while discontinuing unittest)

  • adopted black formatter and added compatible flake8 and isort configurations

  • added Integer as hex-string or bytes representation of an int

  • adopted the function signature of dsa.sign for rfc6979.rfc6979 too

  • added CURVES dictionary of all elliptic curves, e.g.: from btclib.curve import CURVES; ec = CURVES[‘secp256k1’]

  • renamed prvkey_info_xyz as prvkey_info_xyz

  • renamed pubkey_info_xyz as pubkey_info_xyz

  • renamed bytes_from_key as pubkeyinfo_from_key

  • renamed network_from_xpub as network_from_xkeyversion extending its functionality to xprv too

  • redundant spaces (and also tabs, newlines, returns, formfeeds, etc.) are removed from mnemonic phrases using ” “.join(mnemonic.split()) before any encoding of the mnemonic

  • moved the WordLists class into the mnemonic module and removed the wordlist module

  • moved all entropy functions into the entropy module

  • entropy.generate has been renamed as entropy.randbinstr

v2020.5.3

Major changes includes:

  • Fixed Schnorr MuSig and Threshold Signature

  • Generic public/private key accepted wherever PubKey is expected (except for Schnorr where a public key cannot be discriminated as different from a private key)

  • P2PK and P2MS now handle also compressed public keys

  • added gen_keys to dsa, ssa, bms, so that now all the standard gen_keys, sign, and verify functions are available

  • Wherever an input/output parameter sequence had ‘compressed: bool, network: str’, the order has been inverted resulting in ‘network: str, compressed: bool’. Affected functions: base58address.p2pkh, base58wif.wif_from_prvkey, to_prvkey.prvkey_info_from_prvkey, to_pubkey._bytes_from_xpub, to_pubkey.bytes_from_key, to_pubkey.pubkey_info_from_prvkey, hashes.hash160_from_pubkey, secpoint.bytes_from_point,

  • renamed mxprv_from_bip39_mnemonic and mxprv_from_electrum_mnemonic

  • made entropy the first input parameter of mnemonic_from_entropy

  • improved size checks for bytes_from_octets

  • entropy.generate_entropy has been renamed as entropy.generate

v2020.4.21

Major changes includes:

  • The Bitcoin Message Signing module btcmsg.py has been rename bms.py

  • refactored address/scriptPubKey

  • consolidated wif_from_* in wif_from_prvkey

  • removed ambigous functions going from prv_key to address

  • refactored to_pub and to_prv functions

  • added network <-> prefix <-> curve functions in network module

  • removed trailing _scriptPubKey suffix from the function names in the scriptPubKey module

  • tests are now distributed as btclib.tests subpackage

  • removed p2pkh_from_xpub, p2wpkh_p2sh_from_xpub, and p2wpkh_from_xpub (use p2pkh, p2wpkh, and p2wpkh instead)

  • introduced CurveGroup and CurveSubGroup as grand-parent and parent of Curve. Also, renamed ec._p as ec.p and removed default parameters from double_mult

  • renamed ec.opposite(P) as ec.negate(P)

  • the usage of DER (de)serialization is advocated through dsa.(de)serialize, similarly to ssa.(de)serialize and bms.(de)serialize; therefore, the corresponding der.py functions have been renamed with leading underscore

  • introduced XXXSig and XXXSigTuple for XXX = DSA, BTCMSG, and SSA

v2020.4.7

This is a major release that complete the far-reaching refactoring initiated with v2020.3.20; it requires python>=3.8 as we use TypedDict.

Chances are this release might break most projects using btclib, but the changes were long overdue and should be stable in time. Functions and modules have been renamed to better reflect the library design; anyway, because of the clearer logic, it should not be hard to find the new versions. The module alias.py might be a good entry point to familiarize with the new design.

Most notably the library is now able to accept any representation of private keys as input, with all the WIF/BIP32/bytes/integer conversion auto-magically being taken care of. The same apply to public key BIP32/SEC-bytes/tuple conversion. As usual, whenever bytes are accepted, hex-string or text string are accepted too, as appropriate.

Moreover, major changes include:

  • updated the Schnorr implementation to BIP340 proposed standard

  • refactored BIP32 for increased derivation efficiency

  • improved documentation

  • extended functional test case coverage (as usual tests cover 100% of the code base)

  • removed all mypy warnings (but one)