This is a stand-alone P2P transaction submission tool for submitting transactions more privately.
By default, this application expects TOR to be installed. If you don't want to install and/or use TOR, use the --proxy None option.
The motivation for this command is the -walletbroadcast=0 command line option introduced in Bitcoin Core 0.11 (see the release notes). Using the -walletbroadcast=0 command line option with bitcoin core in conjunction with this tool allows you to submit transactions over TOR, but still use clearnet for downloading public blockchain data and receiving unconfirmed transactions from others.
This tool also features scanning a QR code of a signed transaction from Sparrow Wallet.
Install dependencies:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3-pip tor git libgl1 libglib2.0-0
Install bitcoin-submittx:
pip3 install git+https://github.com/AndySchroder/bitcoin-submittx
If this is the first time you've installed a python script with pip, bitcoin-submittx may not be found and ~/.local/bin will need to be added to your PATH variable. On some newer systems, this may be as simple as logging out and logging back into your desktop environment 1,2. Or, if you are using ssh, just log out and log back in. If this does not work, you can manually add ~/.local/bin to your PATH variable using the following command:
echo "export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH">>~/.bashrc
and then open a new terminal to reload the .bashrc file. Alternatively, you can always use ~/.local/bin/bitcoin-submittx to execute the script instead of just bitcoin-submittx.
usage: bitcoin-submittx [-h]
[--loglevel {TRACE,DEBUG,INFO4,INFO3,INFO2,INFO,WARNING,ERROR}]
[--proxy PROXY]
[--proxyrandomize | --no-proxyrandomize]
[--timeout TIMEOUT] [--network NETWORK]
[--nodes NODES] [--nodes-file NODES_FILE]
[--max-nodes MAX_NODES] [--tx-file TX_FILE]
[--QR-scan] [--camera-id CAMERA_ID]
[--camera-resolution CAMERA_RESOLUTION]
[--camera-mirrored] [--yes]
[transactions]
Bitcoin Transaction Submission Tool
positional arguments:
transactions Serialized transactions (encoded as hex, separated by
commas) to broadcast. If None, `tx-file` is also None,
and `--QR-scan` is not used, you will be prompted to
enter (useful if you do not want the transactions
stored in your `.bash_history` file). (default: None)
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--loglevel {TRACE,DEBUG,INFO4,INFO3,INFO2,INFO,WARNING,ERROR}
Set the log level. Choose WARNING or ERROR to receive
no output under normal circumstances. Note: most log
levels do not show connection failures as we can many
times have a successful broadcast when only a small
number of the total nodes that were contacted received
the broadcast transaction(s). Use TRACE, DEBUG, or
INFO4 to see connection failures. (default: INFO)
--proxy PROXY, -p PROXY
SOCKS5 proxy to connect through. Set to `None` to not
use a proxy. (default: 127.0.0.1:9050)
--proxyrandomize, --no-proxyrandomize
If SOCKS5 proxy is defined, assume it is TOR and use
stream isolation. (default: True)
--timeout TIMEOUT, -t TIMEOUT
Number of seconds to wait before disconnecting from
nodes (default: 30)
--network NETWORK Network to connect to (mainnet, regtest, testnet).
This also determines the default port (default:
mainnet)
--nodes NODES List of nodes to connect to, denoted either host or
host:port, separated by commas. If None and `nodes-
file` is also None, DNS seeds will be used to populate
the node list. (default: None)
--nodes-file NODES_FILE, -n NODES_FILE
Read list of nodes from file (either host or
host:port, separated one per line) (default: None)
--max-nodes MAX_NODES
Max number of nodes to use in the node list. Set to 0
to select all nodes. (default: 35)
--tx-file TX_FILE, -r TX_FILE
Read list of transactions from file (encoded as hex,
separated one per line) (default: None)
--QR-scan Scan a QR code of a signed transaction from Sparrow
Wallet. Note: This option is not compatible with
passing transactions on the command line or when using
a `tx-file`. (default: False)
--camera-id CAMERA_ID
Camera id of the camera that you would like to use to
scan a QR code with. (default: 0)
--camera-resolution CAMERA_RESOLUTION
Camera resolution that you would like to use to scan a
QR code with. (default: 1280x720)
--camera-mirrored Mirror the camera when scanning QR codes. (default:
False)
--yes, -y Do not prompt to review and confirm transactions
before submitting. (default: False)
The tool will connect to nodes and announce the transactions. If the nodes subsequently request them within the timeout, they are sent.
The return status of the program will be 0 if at least one node requested the transaction, and 1 otherwise.
As of 2017-11-30, this requires the master version of python-bitcoinlib.
Version 0.8 fails with bitcoin.core.serialize.DeserializationExtraDataError: Not all bytes consumed during deserialization.
A known issue is that bitcoin-submittx invs the wtxid instead of the txid, but when it sends the tx the node accepts it. This is probably not correct per BIP141. Patches welcome!
- DNS seed resolution does not happen over TOR.
- Don't know how to test if the TOR stream isolation is actually working properly, but it should be.
- If multiple transactions are submitted and TOR stream isolation is used, they are batched together when submitted to all nodes and a seperate TOR circuit is not used for each transaction that is submitted to each node.
- IPv6 support
- Provide feedback of transaction reach, e.g. when connected to multiple nodes, it could monitor if the transaction comes back via another route.
- Check inputs and give clearer error messages if bad inputs provided.