Develop a tool for generating a Bitcoin address from a private key. This tool should have a good command-line interface and a test suite.







- Goal
- Contents
- Summary
- Downloadable Assets
- How To Use The Tools
- Project Log







I developed:
- a tool for deriving a Bitcoin address from a private key.
- an accompanying test suite.

The tool has a useful command-line interface.

Please see the Downloadable Assets section for the tool and the test suite, and the How To Use The Tools section for instructions and examples.















Assets of this article:

List:



Asset: A tool that derives a Bitcoin address from a private key. Python 2.7.12.
private_key_to_address.py

Asset: A test suite for the derivation tool. Python 2.7.12, Pytest 4.6.11.
test_private_key_to_address.py




Assets of other articles:

List:



Asset: A library of functions for handling standard Bitcoin data types. Python 2.7.
bitcoin_functions_2.py [paywalled]

Asset: An implementation of RIPEMD-160, written by Björn Edström. Python 2.7.
bjorn_edstrom_ripemd160.py [paywalled]

Asset: A Python implementation of ECDSA cryptography, written by Peter Pearson. Python 2.7.
ecdsa-0.10.tar.gz [paywalled]

Asset: A Python implementation of SHA256. Author unknown. Python 2.7.
pypy_sha256.py [paywalled]




Dependency tree:















Help:





Main:



Note: By default, the tool looks for a file named 'privateKey.txt' in its local directory, so in the above command the filepath argument is optional.





Test:



Note: The test suite file needs to be in the same directory as the tool file.



Examples:


























The Edgecase Bitcoin Storage Toolset version 2 already contains a tool for generating a bitcoin address from a private key, called:
generate_bitcoin_address_4.py

I'll reuse the underlying code from it and its dependencies.

The previous project Generating entropy from dice #2 contains an good command-line tool and test suite. I'll use the same approach.

Work machine:
- Name: Judgement
- Windows 10
- Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL): Ubuntu 16.04
- I'm working in the WSL Ubuntu terminal.

My Python version:


My Pytest version:


Create a project directory, called:
"generating_a_standard_bitcoin_address_2"

Browse to the linked EBSTv2 article and download the various assets for the address generation tool.

Dependency tree:


Create a new directory named "work" in the project directory.


Unpack the zipped tape archive file ecdsa-0.10.tar.gz, by opening a terminal, changing directory to the work directory, and running the following command:


This unpacking produced a new directory named "ecdsa-0.10" in the work directory. The directory "ecdsa-0.10" contains a directory named "ecdsa". Copy the "ecdsa" directory into the work directory, using the following command:


Delete ecdsa-0.10 and ecdsa-0.10.tar.gz.




I'll use the data from the previous project Bitcoin address test set when writing tests.




[development work occurs here.]




I've written a tool for generating a bitcoin address from a private key, and an accompanying test suite:
- private_key_to_address.py
- test_private_key_to_address.py




Let's record some examples of using
private_key_to_address.py













And some examples of testing the tool.











Good. That's the end of this project.













List of previous tools for deriving Bitcoin addresses from private keys, together with the projects in which they were published:


Tool 1: generate_bitcoin_address.py [paywalled]
Project: Generating a standard Bitcoin address


Tool 2: generate_bitcoin_address_2.py [paywalled]
Project: Verifying a signed deed of the GPG 1.4.10 source code


Tool 3: generate_bitcoin_address_3.py [paywalled]
Project: Creating and signing a standard raw Bitcoin transaction: Iteration #2


Tool 4: generate_bitcoin_address_4.py [paywalled]
Project: Edgecase Bitcoin Storage Toolset version 2