python-bitcoinrpc

1.0 verified Fri May 01 auth: no python maintenance

Enhanced version of python-jsonrpc for use with Bitcoin. This library provides a simple RPC client to interact with Bitcoin Core's JSON-RPC API. Current version is 1.0, but the project is in maintenance mode and has known issues with modern Python and Bitcoin Core versions.

pip install python-bitcoinrpc

Common errors

error ImportError: No module named bitcoinrpc.authproxy ↓

cause The package is not installed or installed in wrong environment.

fix

Run 'pip install python-bitcoinrpc' and verify import path: from bitcoinrpc.authproxy import AuthServiceProxy

error AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'group' ↓

cause The library's regex parsing of the RPC response failed, often due to malformed response or unexpected characters.

fix

Ensure the RPC server returns valid JSON. Check that the URL is correct and the server is running.

error Error: unable to connect to RPC server ↓

cause The RPC URL is incorrect or server is not reachable.

fix

Verify RPC_HOST, RPC_PORT, and credentials. Test with curl: curl --user user:pass --data-binary '{"jsonrpc":"1.0","id":"curl","method":"getblockchaininfo","params":[]}' http://127.0.0.1:8332

Warnings

breaking The library expects the RPC URL to contain the username and password directly in the URL (e.g., http://user:pass@host:port). Using a pre-authenticated URL or passing separate credentials to AuthServiceProxy is not supported. ↓

fix Construct the URL as 'http://{rpc_user}:{rpc_password}@{rpc_host}:{rpc_port}'

deprecated python-bitcoinrpc is largely unmaintained and does not support Python 3.7+. It uses deprecated 'cookielib' and other Python 2 idioms. Consider using 'bitcoinrpc' (Python 3 fork) or direct requests to call JSON-RPC. ↓

fix Switch to the maintained fork 'python-bitcoinrpc' (different package) or use requests library directly.

gotcha The library does not support SSL/TLS by default. Connecting over plain HTTP may expose credentials. Use a local RPC connection or tunnel if needed. ↓

fix Ensure RPC server is on localhost or use a reverse proxy with HTTPS.

Imports

AuthServiceProxy
wrong
```
from bitcoinrpc import AuthServiceProxy
```
correct
```
from bitcoinrpc.authproxy import AuthServiceProxy
```
import from bitcoinrpc.authproxy directly, not from bitcoinrpc top-level

JSONRPCException

wrong

from bitcoinrpc.exceptions import JSONRPCException

correct

from bitcoinrpc.authproxy import JSONRPCException

JSONRPCException is defined in authproxy module, not in exceptions

Quickstart

Connect to a Bitcoin Core RPC server using environment variables for credentials.

from bitcoinrpc.authproxy import AuthServiceProxy

rpc_user = os.environ.get('RPC_USER', 'user')
rpc_password = os.environ.get('RPC_PASSWORD', 'pass')
rpc_host = os.environ.get('RPC_HOST', '127.0.0.1')
rpc_port = os.environ.get('RPC_PORT', '8332')

# Note: python-bitcoinrpc expects URL with credentials embedded
url = f'http://{rpc_user}:{rpc_password}@{rpc_host}:{rpc_port}'
proxy = AuthServiceProxy(url)

# Test connection
print(proxy.getblockchaininfo())