Class: Bitcoin::Block

Inherits:
Object
  • Object
show all
Defined in:
lib/bc.rb

Overview

This class represents a block in the Bitcoin block chain. (c.f. en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block and en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Block_hashing_algorithm)

Instance Attribute Summary collapse

Instance Method Summary collapse

Constructor Details

#initialize(bc, block_id) ⇒ Block

bc is a Bitcoin::Client instance. block_id is our unique (String) block ID. We raise UnknownBitcoinBlock if the bitcoind doesn’t know about a block with that ID.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 152

def initialize(bc, block_id)
	@bc = bc

	unless @bc.is_a?(Bitcoin::Client)
		raise TypeError, "bc must be a Bitcoin::Client (#{@bc.class} given)"
	end

	unless block_id.is_a?(String)
		raise TypeError, "block_id must be a String (#{block_id.class} given)"
	end

	begin
		block_data = @bc.jr.getblock(block_id)
	rescue Jr::ServerError => ex
		if ex.code == -5
			raise UnknownBlock, block_id
		else
			raise
		end
	end

	{
		block_id: :hash,
		height: :height,
		version: :version,
		merkle_root: :merkleroot,
		created_at_unix_time: :time,
		nonce: :nonce,
		difficulty: :difficulty,
		transaction_ids: :tx,
		previous_block_id: :nextblockhash,
		next_block_id: :previoushblockhash
	}.each do |our_attr, block_data_key|
		instance_variable_set(
			"@#{our_attr}",
			block_data[block_data_key.to_s].freeze
		)
	end

	@transactions ||= [].freeze
end

Instance Attribute Details

#bc ⇒ Object (readonly)

This is the Bitcoin::Client instance we are connected to.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 118

def bc
  @bc
end

#block_id ⇒ Object (readonly)

This is the unique ID of the block. It is a String beginning with a number of ‘0’s.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 122

def block_id
  @block_id
end

#difficulty ⇒ Object (readonly)

This is a Float representing how difficult it was to generate the block. It increases logarithmically in proportion to difficulty.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 140

def difficulty
  @difficulty
end

#height ⇒ Object (readonly)

This is the order of this block in the block chain, i.e. the number of blocks that came before it.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 126

def height
  @height
end

#merkle_root ⇒ Object (readonly)

This is a base 16 String representation of a SHA-256 hash generated from all the transactions in the block.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 133

def merkle_root
  @merkle_root
end

#nonce ⇒ Object (readonly)

This is a 32-bit Fixnum used in order to get a @block_id matching @target.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 136

def nonce
  @nonce
end

#target ⇒ Object (readonly)

This is a compact representation of the prefix this block was attempting to match.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 147

def target
  @target
end

#transactions ⇒ Object (readonly)

This is an Array of every Transaction that is part of the block.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 143

def transactions
  @transactions
end

#version ⇒ Object (readonly)

This is the block version. Currently, it should be 1.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 129

def version
  @version
end

Instance Method Details

#created_at ⇒ Object

This is the Time the block was created at.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 207

def created_at
	@created_at ||= Time.at(@created_at_unix_time).utc.freeze
end

#inspect ⇒ Object 



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 211

def inspect
	"#<Bitcoin::Block #{@block_id}>"
end

#next_block ⇒ Object

This is the Block created immediately after this one, or nil if this is the most recent block.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 196

def next_block
	@bc.get_block(@next_block_id)
end

#previous_block ⇒ Object

This is the Block created prior to this one, or nil if this is the origin block.



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# File 'lib/bc.rb', line 202

def previous_block
	@bc.get_block(@previous_block_id)
end