The 21inc Computer has just recently released a “Library” for developers to create applications that work with the Bitcoin ecosystem. The library consists of Python modules that revolve around multiple operations utilizing the cryptocurrency. 21inc says the startups developer community is growing daily, and the library is following its lead.
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“For those of you who have a 21 Bitcoin Computer today, we hope this documentation — in addition to the existing tutorials at 21.co/learn — helps you build even more Bitcoin-enabled applications.” — 21inc
The 21inc team has created a comprehensive list of detailed submodules within its new library including bitcoin, blockchain, wallet and crypto. They say the collection of documentation will be kept up-to-date and written in Python 3. These application building blocks give users the ability to create a vast amount of functions that can be assembled by a developer. Distributed autonomous networks can be built with the computer and some coding. The library plus the computer is the promising beginning of the it’s very own 21 version of the Internet of Things (IoT) powered by Bitcoin.
Since the dawn of the digital revolution, ideas have flourished into newly built networks of people and things. Science-Fiction and Cypherpunk visions have shown us a world where computers and humans interact together fluidly with software, microchips, sensors, and connectivity. This week we discussed Marc Andreessen’s predictions of chips embedded in many physical items to make life just a touch easier. Andreessen is a lead investor of 21inc that could power remote-controlled networks that rely on microtransactions and smart contracts. Integration with the physical world and the digital landscape we create may also result in efficient, tamper proof, and accurate economies. A digital network that is interoperable with our everyday lives is coming sooner than we think and 21inc computers may bolster that vision.
Currently, 21inc’s tutorials teach quite a bit about the command line and the Python library, which can right now power a simple Bitcoin-powered game, an HTTP-payable proxy, SMS Bitcoin texting, and a payable API. The possibilities of what individuals and organizations can build are as endless as people who grasp the technology may take it to the next level. Each submodule is accessible from “two1.lib.blockchain”, “two1.lib.wallet”, “two1.lib.crypto” namespace. Many of the features include:
- Classes for major Bitcoin data structures, like blocks, block headers, transactions, scripts, public and private keys, and digital signatures
- Code to consistently serialize and deserialize these data structures to and from raw byte representations
- Creation of standard scripts (Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash [P2PKH] and Pay-to-Script-Hash [P2SH]) as well as multi-sig support
- Transaction creation, signing, verification, and broadcasting, including for multisig transactions
- Standard public/private key generation as well as generation of keys for HD wallets
- Utilities for working with Bitcoin’s various idiosyncrasies, from parsing variable length integers to converting difficulties to bits and back
The 21inc library is an expansion to an array of information they are coming out with throughout the company’s hardware product release. The startup’s CEO Balaji Srinivasan said back in September:
“We want to make it possible for you to turn your bright idea into passive income by selling bitcoin-payable goods, games, and services over the Internet through a 21 Bitcoin Computer.”
And the company seems to be rolling out the education on this matter. When the idea first emerged, they even offered Bitcoin for those that could write detailed essays about the technology and its many features. The business doesn’t seem to be letting up on trying to get this concept to work as devices that will help run the IoT landscape will be in high demand. Developers are already monetizing retweets on Twitter, Jeff Garzik’s Mechanical Turk, selling music tracks, and more via the computer’s protocol.
What do you think about the 21Inc Computer? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Redmemes, 21inc’s website and Pixbay
