15 Feb 2014 / PC World – Bitcoin developers tired of working with clunky APIs to build their apps have a new option that goes straight to the source.
Bitcore is an open-source JavaScript library introduced Friday by BitPay, a major processor of Bitcoin payments. Bitcore provides a native interface to the Bitcoin network to ease the app development process.
The Bitcoin system itself is built on open-source software, so think of Bitcore as a return to its roots. “We believe that developers contemplating new Bitcoin projects should not have to resort to using proprietary APIs hosted on services running closed software,” BitPay said in announcing the library.
As Bitcoin’s popularity has grown, tools for developers have surfaced, including an SDK (software development kit) from Coinbase for incorporating Bitcoin payments into apps. The Bitcore project seems to target a wider set of use cases, to make the development process easier for people building any type of app.
“What we hope to accomplish is to develop a great community building apps around Bitcore that contribute to everybody in this space,” said Ryan X. Charles, a BitPay software engineer, in an email.
Apps emerge
A few apps have already come out of Bitcore. One is “Insight,” which delves into data from the Bitcoin block chain, or the public ledger of Bitcoin transactions. Another is “Wally,” a digital wallet for storing bitcoins….. Read more
