Ethereum: Passing a JSON argument to bitcoind in Windows command prompt

Ethereum: Passing a JSON Argument to Bitcoin in Windows Command Prompt

If you are having trouble using sendmany on your local Bitcoin-qt installation in Windows Command Prompt, you may be experiencing a JSON parsing error. In this article, we will show you how to pass a JSON argument to Bitcoin using the --json option.

What is sendmany and what does it do?

sendmany is an optional command line argument that allows you to send multiple transactions from the same account in a single transaction. By default, sendmany only sends one transaction at a time. Here is how you can use it:

bitcoin - qt - json - M < account_address > 1m < amount >

In this example, -M is an alias for --max-mem-size. This option sets the maximum amount of memory to be allocated by the Bitcoin daemon.

The JSON argument

When you pass a JSON argument, Bitcoin expects it to be in the following format:

{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "method": "sendmany", "params": {"from": , "to": , "count": 10, "value": }}

Here is a breakdown of the JSON structure and its fields:

– jsonrpc: A string specifying whether or not to use JSON-RPC.

– method: The method you want to call. In this case, we are using sendmany.

– params: An object containing information about the transaction you want to send. Here is a brief overview of each field:

– from: The address the transaction is being sent from (in our example).

– to: The recipient address for the transaction.

– count: The number of transactions in the JSON array that this method will construct.

– value: The value to use when constructing the transaction.

Passing a JSON Argument Using the Windows Command Prompt

To pass a JSON argument from the command prompt, you can use the following syntax:

bitcoin - qt - json - M < account_address > 1m < amount >

Here’s what this does:

– --json tells Bitcoin to accept a JSON argument.

– -M is an alias for --max-mem-size.

– and are placeholders for the addresses you want to send transactions from and to, respectively.

Example Use Case

Let’s say you have two accounts: one with the address 0.1a...123456789 that you want to use to send funds, and another account with the address 0.2a...123456789. You can use this approach to send multiple transactions from a single account:

bitcoin - qt - json - M 0.1a ... 123456789 10m 1m

In this case, Bitcoin will create an array of 20 transactions and pass them to the sendmany method.

Conclusion

To use JSON arguments with your local Bitcoin-qt installation, you can follow these steps:

– Identify the account addresses or recipient addresses that you want to send funds to.

– Set the --max-mem-size option to control the maximum amount of memory allocated by the Bitcoin daemon.

– Pass a JSON argument using the --json option followed by the account address or recipient address and the desired transaction count.