bitcoin-gui-rs

Overview

bitcoin-gui-rs is a Proof of Concept (POC) for a standalone GUI application that interacts with Bitcoin Core using a Rust-based GUI framework (Tauri). Bitcoin Core's multiprocess feature separates its components into different executables (bitcoin-node, bitcoin-wallet, bitcoin-gui), and each of them can be run as different processes, with the bitcoin-node connected to the bitcoin network and the bitcoin-wallet and bitcoin-gui connected to the bitcoin-node through a socket pair, using an IPC for communication between them everything through a capnp proton, but in this POC, the GUI is treated as an independent binary (bitcoin-node) that communicates with Bitcoin Core via a Rust IPC interface.

You can check more about Bitcoin Multiprocess from this document by ryanofsky. This work was heavily inspired by His work.

Features

• Standalone GUI built with Rust (Tauri).
• Communicates with Bitcoin Core through an IPC interface.
• Supports interactions with the Bitcoin Core Regtest network.
• Provides basic chain functionalities.

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following dependencies installed:

1. System Dependencies (Linux, macOS, Windows) - System Dependencies

2. Rust – Rust

3. Compile Bitcoin Core Build (with multiprocess enabled - PR #29409)

   # Clone Bitcoin Core and checkout the PR
   git clone https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin.git
   cd bitcoin
   git fetch origin pull/29409/head:pr29409
   git checkout pr29409
   
   # Build dependencies with multiprocess support
   make -C depends HOST=aarch64-apple-darwin MULTIPROCESS=1 NO_QT=1
   
   # Configure and build Bitcoin Core
   export HOST_PLATFORM="aarch64-apple-darwin"
   
   # Build (works for macOS)
   cmake -B multiprocbuild/ \
       --toolchain=depends/$HOST_PLATFORM/toolchain.cmake \
       -DOPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/openssl@3 \
       -DOPENSSL_CRYPTO_LIBRARY=/opt/homebrew/opt/openssl@3/lib/libcrypto.dylib \
       -DOPENSSL_SSL_LIBRARY=/opt/homebrew/opt/openssl@3/lib/libssl.dylib \
       -DOPENSSL_INCLUDE_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/openssl@3/include \
       -DZLIB_ROOT=/opt/homebrew/opt/zlib \
       -DZLIB_LIBRARY=/opt/homebrew/opt/zlib/lib/libz.dylib \
       -DZLIB_INCLUDE_DIR=/opt/homebrew/opt/zlib/include
   
   # Final build process
   cmake --build multiprocbuild/ --parallel $(sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu)

Setting up the Development Environment

1. Start Bitcoin Core in Regtest Mode

Regtest (Regression Test Mode) allows local Bitcoin connect which is great for quickly testing out the bitcoin blockchain without connecting to the mainnet nor testnet.

• Run two regtest nodes, one bitcoind and one bitcoin-node

  Inorder to have a readily available funded wallet, we'll use a bitcoind with a regular Bitcoin Core wallet on it, connected to the bitcoin-node node.

  Start the bitcoind node, create a wallet on it (I'll call it bene), and fund the wallet by mining some blocks:

  mkdir regular_bitcoind_wallet
  
  ./multiprocbuild/src/bitcoind -regtest -datadir=$PWD/regular_bitcoind_wallet -daemon
  
  ./multiprocbuild/src/bitcoin-cli -regtest -datadir=$PWD/regular_bitcoind_wallet createwallet bene
  
  ./multiprocbuild/src/bitcoin-cli -regtest -datadir=$PWD/regular_bitcoind_wallet -rpcwallet=bene generatetoaddress 110 $(./multiprocbuild/src/bitcoin-cli -regtest -datadir=$PWD/regular_bitcoind_wallet -rpcwallet=bene getnewaddress)

  Alternatively, you can just start the bitcoind without a wallet using the command:

  bitcoind --regtest

  Now start the bitcoin-node node in a different datadir, connected to the first node, with no JSONRPC server:

  mkdir datadir_bitcoin-node
  
  ./multiprocbuild/src/bitcoin-node -regtest -datadir=$PWD/datadir_bdk_wallet -server=0 -port=19444 -connect=127.0.0.1:18444 -ipcbind=unix -debug=ipc

  Take note of the -ipcbind=unix to create the interface and optional -debug=ipc to observe IPC messages.

Usage

Run the Tauri Application

1. Clone this repository and navigate to the project directory:

# clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/GideonBature/bitcoin-gui-rs.git

# move into the project directory
cd bitcoin-gui-rs/bitcoin-gui

2. Install dependencies:

npm install  # or yarn install

3. Rename .env.example to .env and add the path to the socket file created by running bitcoin-node in regtest with multiprocess.

SOCKET_PATH="/path/to/bitcoin-core/socket/file.sock";

4. Run the application:

npm run tauri dev

• The bitcoin-gui will open with a dashboard as shown below: For now only the some of the Blockchain functions have been implemented, others will still be added.

• To check for some Blockchain Information, simply click on Blockchain Information button and you will be met with the Bitcoin Information Dashboard as shown in the image below:

  

• To check for Blockchain Tip Block Count, simply click on Get Block Count button and you will get the Chain Tip Block Count as shown in the image below:

  

• To check for Blockchain Tip Block Hash, simply click on Get Best Block Hash button and you will get the Chain Tip Block Hash as shown in the image below:

  

• To check for Blockchain Block Hash (by height), simply click on Get Block Hash button on the Get Block Hash (by Height) component and you will get the Block Hash of any block at a height as shown in the image below:

  

• To check for Blockchain Block Information (by height), simply click on Get Block button on the Get Block (by Height) component and you will get the Block Information of any block at a height as shown in the image below:

  

Note

This project is in no way production ready, with some functions both from the bitcoin-node and bitcoin-wallet that are yet to be implemented. For now it is still in active development.

Acknowledgements

I found this bitcoin-ipc tool useful for generating a rust IPC interface for bitcoin core via rust-capnproto. Also, was inspired by pseudorandom's work on BlockTalk.

Contributing

Feel free to open issues and pull requests to improve the project.