Post to Bitcoin SV blockchain with ‘simplest’ Datapay JavaScript library

Prolific cryptocurrency developer Unwriter is making good on his promise “to build everything on top of Bitcoin”—Bitcoin SV (BSV) to be specific.

On January 2, the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Bitcoin genesis block, Unwriter announced on Twitter the launch of Datapay, the “simplest” JavaScript library for building and broadcasting data transactions to the BSV blockchain. It’s so simple, according to the developer, that “all it takes is 4 lines (of code) to start writing data” to the BSV chain.

Forked from Datacash, the library Unwriter wrote for the BCH, Datapay uses BSV Explorer as its default RPC. It’s also powered by bsv, a library for cryptography, key management and transaction building for Bitcoin SV. But unlike the conventional Bitcoin transaction libraries, which focus on sending money, Datapay is designed with a different philosophy—send data as simple as possible.

To do this, the Datapay library only has two methods: build, for building a transaction but not broadcasting it to the network; and send, for sending a transaction.

Unwriter explained on GitHub, “Datapay was created in order to make it dead simple to construct OP_RETURN related transactions, but you can even use it to build regular transactions. Also Datapay exposes datapay.bsv endpoint which you can use to access the underlying bsv library.”

Datapay is unique in that it's probably the only Bitcoin library that implements simple declarative programming.

Because of this declarative nature, for example you can implement language agnostic Microservices like BitShovel, by @dfoderick https://t.co/PgmZYQfjJp pic.twitter.com/2rE9HlXxzn

— _unwriter (@_unwriter) January 2, 2019

In December, Unwriter announced that he would be transitioning all his projects to use the bsv library, which is being maintained by Money Button for the BSV ecosystem. The crypto developer’s move is in line with his decision “to build everything on top of Bitcoin.” Unwriter, who was behind a number of the useful infrastructure projects in the Bitcoin Cash ecosystem, noted in a Medium post that Bitcoin SV is the real Bitcoin, explaining, “I feel 100% safe operating on SV because the protocol hasn’t changed at all, there has been no behind-the-doors centralized collusion.”

Unwriter, however, believes app developers have a common goal. He points out, “Regardless of what BCH has become, I see all app developers—even those who confuse me as evil—as being on the same side, you just don’t realize yet.”