Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Developer SDK Overview

The developer SDK (blvm-sdk) provides governance infrastructure and a composition framework for Bitcoin. It includes reusable governance primitives and a composition framework for building alternative Bitcoin implementations.

Architecture Position

Tier 5 of the 6-tier Bitcoin Commons architecture:

1. Orange Paper (mathematical foundation)
2. blvm-consensus (pure math implementation)
3. blvm-protocol (Bitcoin abstraction)
4. blvm-node (full node implementation)
5. blvm-sdk (governance + composition) ← THIS LAYER
6. blvm-commons (governance enforcement)

Core Components

Governance Primitives

Cryptographic primitives for governance operations:

  • Key Management: Generate and manage governance keypairs
  • Signature Creation: Sign governance messages using Bitcoin-compatible standards
  • Signature Verification: Verify signatures and multisig thresholds
  • Multisig Logic: Threshold-based collective decision making
  • Nested Multisig: Team-based governance with hierarchical multisig support
  • Message Formats: Structured messages for releases, approvals, decisions

Code: signatures.rs

CLI Tools

Command-line tools for governance operations:

  • blvm-keygen: Generate governance keypairs (PEM, JSON formats)
  • blvm-sign: Sign governance messages (releases, approvals)
  • blvm-verify: Verify signatures and multisig thresholds
  • blvm-compose: Declarative node composition from modules
  • blvm-sign-binary: Sign binary files for release verification
  • blvm-verify-binary: Verify binary file signatures
  • blvm-aggregate-signatures: Aggregate multiple signatures

Code: blvm-keygen.rs

Composition Framework

Declarative node composition from modules:

  • Module Registry: Discover and manage available modules
  • Lifecycle Management: Load, unload, reload modules at runtime
  • Economic Integration: Merge mining revenue distribution
  • Dependency Resolution: Automatic module dependency handling

Code: mod.rs

Key Features

Governance Primitives

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use blvm_sdk::governance::{
    GovernanceKeypair, GovernanceMessage, Multisig
};

// Generate a keypair
let keypair = GovernanceKeypair::generate()?;

// Create a message to sign
let message = GovernanceMessage::Release {
    version: "v1.0.0".to_string(),
    commit_hash: "abc123".to_string(),
};

// Sign the message
let signature = keypair.sign(&message.to_signing_bytes())?;

// Verify with multisig
let multisig = Multisig::new(6, 7, maintainer_keys)?;
let valid = multisig.verify(&message.to_signing_bytes(), &[signature])?;
}

Multisig Support

Threshold-based signature verification:

  • N-of-M Thresholds: Configurable signature requirements (e.g., 6-of-7, see Multisig Configuration)
  • Key Management: Maintainer key registration and rotation
  • Signature Aggregation: Combine multiple signatures
  • Verification: Cryptographic verification of threshold satisfaction

Code: multisig.rs

Bitcoin-Compatible Signing

Uses Bitcoin message signing standards:

  • Message Format: Bitcoin message signing format
  • Signature Algorithm: secp256k1 ECDSA
  • Hash Function: Double SHA256
  • Compatibility: Compatible with Bitcoin Core signing

Code: signatures.rs

Design Principles

  1. Governance Crypto is Reusable: Clean library API for external consumers
  2. No GitHub Logic: SDK is pure cryptography + composition, not enforcement
  3. Bitcoin-Compatible: Uses Bitcoin message signing standards
  4. Test Everything: Governance crypto needs 100% test coverage
  5. Document for Consumers: Governance app developers are the customer

What This Is NOT

  • NOT a general-purpose Bitcoin library
  • NOT the GitHub enforcement engine (that’s blvm-commons)
  • NOT handling wallet keys or user funds
  • NOT competing with rust-bitcoin or BDK

Usage Examples

CLI Usage

# Generate a keypair
blvm-keygen --output alice.key --format pem

# Sign a release
blvm-sign release \
  --version v1.0.0 \
  --commit abc123 \
  --key alice.key \
  --output signature.txt

# Verify signatures
blvm-verify release \
  --version v1.0.0 \
  --commit abc123 \
  --signatures sig1.txt,sig2.txt,sig3.txt,sig4.txt,sig5.txt,sig6.txt \
  --threshold 6-of-7 \
  --pubkeys keys.json

Library Usage

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use blvm_sdk::governance::{GovernanceKeypair, GovernanceMessage};

// Generate keypair
let keypair = GovernanceKeypair::generate()?;

// Sign message
let message = GovernanceMessage::Release {
    version: "v1.0.0".to_string(),
    commit_hash: "abc123".to_string(),
};
let signature = keypair.sign(&message.to_signing_bytes())?;
}

See Also