BlockCypher was one of the only infrastructure service during the early days of Bitcoin to make Bitcoin development easier. Starting from the bottom up is no easy task for developers not familiar with the block chain. When we first built our product, we used bitcoind as our interface to the block chain, it was primitive and provided very basic APIs. We had to build our own tools whenever we need to do more than sending a transaction. Thankfully, we met BlockCypher during our stint at Boost. BlockCypher’s extensive APIs has made it easier for us to build tools to interact with the Block chain.
Here are some of the notable APIs they have:
Double spend detection – An API that notifies you when someone attempts to double spend a transaction
Multisig utilities – For creating and signing multi signature transactions
Transaction confidence score – When used with the double spend API, it allows you to accept transactions without having to wait for a confirmation (0 confirmation). This is great for businesses building POS applications.
Webhooks – Receive callbacks for transactions, confirmations and other notifications.
Supports multiple alt-coins - Interact with not just the Bitcoin block chain, but for several altcoins as well. accept Dogecoin, Litecoin, URO and Testnets.
Their API is more extensive than any other block chain API service currently available. Check them out if you are looking to build block chain applications. I also personally contribute to their Ruby Gem @ https://github.com/blockcypher/ruby-client
BlockCypher’s documentation at: http://dev.blockcypher.com
Gerry – CTO CoinHako.com
Update: At the recent Money 2020, BlockCypher announced the public release of their Assets API that enables the issuance plus handling of any asset on the block chain.
“This Assets API, similar to our other APIs, makes it easy to utilize blockchain technology without having to run it yourself. We save companies time, money, and a lot of headaches.” says Catheryne Nicholson, BlockCypher CEO and Co-founder. “Blockchain technology will transform how we transfer value over the Internet,”
