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Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 15:42:45 -0400
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From: Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@bitpay.com>
To: Bitcoin Dev <bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net>
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Subject: [Bitcoin-development] HTTP REST API for bitcoind
Precedence: list

URL: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/2844

Adding 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/tx/TX-HASH
or
     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 via a
"bitcoin-format" header.

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.

-- 
Jeff Garzik
Senior Software Engineer and open source evangelist
BitPay, Inc.      https://bitpay.com/