Gocoin bitcoin software
An open-source Bitcoin solution written in Go language (golang). It can be built for every platform that has a working Go compiler. It uses a proprietary license, though is free to use for non-commercial purposes.
Features
Gocoin has a several unique features, that distinguish it from the original bitcoin client.
Node / Client
- All the unspent outputs are kept in memory, which makes switching between different wallets, as well as checking a balance of any address, relatively fast (few seconds max).
- Allows a user to limit the upload and download network bandwidth used by the client.
- Can be monitored and controlled through a web interface (from a web browser).
- Works with its own implementation of a cold storage wallet.
Wallet
- For security reasons, it is supposed to be used with a PC that has never been (and will never be) connected to a network.
- The wallet is deterministic and a seed-password based. As long as you can remember the password, there is no need for any backups.
- Additionally it can import private keys from an existing bitcoin wallet (that comes in the base58 format).
- Has very low hardware requirements. Can be run on i.e. Raspberry Pi
- Can generate Type-2 deterministic keys/addresses
- Supports signing of P2SH multisig transactions.
Node-less mode
It is possible to use Gocoin's wallet, without a need to have a running client node.
In such a case the required balance files are fetched with a tool called FetchBal, from two popular block explorer services; BlockChain.info and BlockExplorer.com.
Requirements
The client node requires 64-bit platform and at least 4GB of system memory. It also requires a file system that can handle files larger than 4GB.
Limitations
- No GUI, though the online node has web interface
- No IPv6
- No UPnP
History
Gocoin was written by a single person for a private purposes. The software's first public release was announced in May 2013 on Bitcointalk forum.[1]