# richardkiss/pycoin

Python-based Bitcoin and alt-coin utility library.

Repository: https://github.com/richardkiss/pycoin
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/pycoin
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: python, bitcoin, altcoins, segwit, bip32
Last push: 2026-06-18T22:10:21+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 72/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 88, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4818, "days_push": 76, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1439, forks 490 (observed 2026-08-28T04:04:44.043899+00:00)

## What it is
A Python library providing utilities for Bitcoin and Bitcoin-like altcoins, including key creation/parsing, BIP32 hierarchical deterministic wallets, and transaction building, signing, and validation. It supports many networks via a network registry, with Bitcoin having the deepest feature coverage including multisig partial signing.

## Use cases
- generate bitcoin private keys and addresses in python
- parse and create BIP32 hierarchical deterministic wallet keys
- sign and validate bitcoin transactions programmatically
- work with altcoin addresses and transactions
- partially sign multisig bitcoin transactions
- convert keys between WIF, SEC, and address formats

## When to choose
- you need offline, pure-Python bitcoin key and transaction manipulation without running a node
- you need BIP32 wallet key derivation and parsing
- you need to support multiple bitcoin-like altcoin networks from one library

## When to avoid
- you need to speak the bitcoin peer-to-peer network protocol (use pycoinnet instead)
- you need a full wallet application or blockchain explorer features
- you need smart-contract or non-bitcoin-like blockchain support

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: active
- function: cryptography, serialization, sdk
- domain: blockchain, developer-tools
- platform: python, cross-platform
- tags: bitcoin, altcoins, bip32, segwit, transaction-signing, hd-wallets, key-management, cryptocurrency

## Member repositories
- richardkiss/pycoin (main) score 72

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:44.043899+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T04:36:37.234906+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/richardkiss/pycoin (fetched 2026-08-28T04:04:44.043899+00:00, sha 1c6057beae57)
  - registry_pypi: https://pypi.org/pypi/pycoin/json (fetched 2026-08-29T11:47:03.402057+00:00, sha 12ebdc551567)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.