BIP32 (Bitcoin HD Wallets)

Warnings

• breaking Version 5.0.0 introduced breaking changes. Always consult the `CHANGELOG.md` for specific migration instructions when upgrading from previous major versions.
  Fix: Review the official changelog (`https://github.com/darosior/python-bip32/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md`) for details on API changes and required code modifications.
• breaking Version 3.0.0 was a breaking release due to updates in Python and Coincurve version requirements. This may necessitate updating your Python environment or `coincurve` dependency.
  Fix: Ensure your Python environment meets the new requirements (e.g., Python >=3.9 for 5.x), and update your `coincurve` installation if needed.
• breaking Version 2.0.0 introduced stricter sanity checks and renamed methods within the `BIP32` class. Code relying on older method names or less stringent input validation will break.
  Fix: Update method calls to the new names and ensure all inputs conform to the stricter validation rules. Refer to the `CHANGELOG.md` for exact renames.
• gotcha When initializing `BIP32` from an extended public key (`from_xpub`), you can only derive unhardened child public keys. Attempting to derive hardened public keys will result in an error, as this operation requires the private key.
  Fix: To derive hardened keys, you must initialize the `BIP32` instance using `from_seed` or `from_xpriv` (an extended private key).
• gotcha The `bip32` library depends on `coincurve`, which is a Python wrapper for the `libsecp256k1` C library. This means that system-level dependencies for `libsecp256k1` might be required for successful installation, particularly on certain operating systems or custom environments.
  Fix: Before installing `bip32`, ensure `libsecp256k1` and its development headers are installed on your system. Consult `coincurve`'s documentation for platform-specific installation instructions if `pip install bip32` fails.

Install

• pip install bip32 Install latest version

Imports

• BIP32

  from bip32 import BIP32

• HARDENED_INDEX

  from bip32 import HARDENED_INDEX

  A constant used for specifying hardened derivation paths.

Quickstart

Initializes a BIP32 wallet from a seed and demonstrates deriving extended private and public keys using both list and string-based derivation paths. It also shows how to instantiate from an extended public key for public-only derivation.

from bip32 import BIP32, HARDENED_INDEX

# Create a BIP32 instance from a seed
seed = bytes.fromhex("000102030405060708090a0b0c0d0e0f")
bip32_wallet = BIP32.from_seed(seed)

# Derive a hardened private child key using a list of indices
xpriv_path_list = bip32_wallet.get_xpriv_from_path([1, HARDENED_INDEX, 9998])
print(f"Derived XPRIV (list path): {xpriv_path_list}")

# Derive a hardened private child key using a string path
xpriv_path_str = bip32_wallet.get_xpriv_from_path("m/1/0'/9998")
print(f"Derived XPRIV (string path): {xpriv_path_str}")

# Derive an extended public key (xpub) from a non-hardened path
xpub = bip32_wallet.get_xpub_from_path("m/0/0/0")
print(f"Derived XPUB: {xpub}")

# Instantiate from an existing extended public key (xpub) (can only derive unhardened children)
public_wallet = BIP32.from_xpub(xpub)
child_xpub = public_wallet.get_xpub_from_path("m/0/1")
print(f"Derived child XPUB from XPUB: {child_xpub}")