15_3_Testing_with_Regtest.md

15.3: Testing with Regtest

NOTE: This is a draft in progress, so that I can get some feedback from early reviewers. It is not yet ready for learning.

This document explains how to test transactions and situations using regtest (regression test).

Verifying balance

After mining blocks and getting the rewards, you can verify the balance on your wallet:

$ bitcoin-cli -regtest getbalance
50.00000000

This will print the balance in your wallet.

Validating the Regtest

Now you should be able to use this balance for any type of interaction with the private Blockchain, such as sending Bitcoin transactions according to Chapter 4 in this guide. The only difference is that you need to use the flag -regtest when running the bitcoin-cli in order for the request to be sent to the Regtest Bitcoin daemon.

It is important to note that for your transactions to complete, you will have to generate/mine new blocks so that the transactions can be included into them.

For example, to create a transaction and include into a block, you should use the sendtoaddress command:

$ bitcoin-cli -regtest sendtoaddress [address] 15.1
e834a4ac6ef754164c8e3f0be4f34531b74b768199ffb244ab9f6cb1bbc7465a

The output is the transaction hash included in the blockchain. You can verify the details using the gettransaction:

$ bitcoin-cli -regtest gettransaction e834a4ac6ef754164c8e3f0be4f34531b74b768199ffb244ab9f6cb1bbc7465a
{
  "amount": 0.00000000,
  "fee": -0.00178800,
  "confirmations": 0,
  "trusted": false,
  "txid": "e834a4ac6ef754164c8e3f0be4f34531b74b768199ffb244ab9f6cb1bbc7465a",
  "walletconflicts": [
  ],
  "time": 1513204730,
  "timereceived": 1513204730,
  "bip125-replaceable": "unknown",
  "details": [
    {
      "account": "",
      "address": "mjtN3C97kuWMgeBbxdB7hG1bjz24Grx2vA",
      "category": "send",
      "amount": -15.10000000,
      "label": "",
      "vout": 1,
      "fee": -0.00178800,
      "abandoned": false
    },
    {
      "account": "",
      "address": "mjtN3C97kuWMgeBbxdB7hG1bjz24Grx2vA",
      "category": "receive",
      "amount": 15.10000000,
      "label": "",
      "vout": 1
    }
  ],
  "hex": "020000000f00fe2c7b70b925d0d40011ce96f8991fee5aba9537bd1b6913b37c37b041a57c00000000494830450221009ad02bfeee2a49196a99811ace20e2e7fefd16d33d525884edbc64bf6e2b1db502200b94f4000556391b0998932edde3033ba2517733c7ddffb87d91f6b756629fe201feffffff06a9301a2b39875b68f8058b8e2ad0b658f505e44a67e1e1d039140ae186ed1f0000000049483045022100c65cd13a85af6fcfba74d2852276a37076c89a7642429aa111b7986eea7fd6c7022012bbcb633d392ed469d5befda8df0a6b96e1acfa342f559877edebc2af7cb93401feffffff434b6f67e5e068401553e89f739a3edc667504597f29feb8edafc2b081cc32d90000000049483045022100b86ecc43e602180c787c36465da7fc8d1e8bfba23d6f49c37190c20889f2dfa0022032c3aec3ceefbb7a33c040ef19090cacbfd6bc9c5cd8e94252eb864891c6f34501feffffff4c65b43f8568ce58fc4c55d24ba0742e9878a031fdfae0fadac7247f42cc1f8e0000000049483045022100d055acfce852259dde051dc61792f94277d094c5da96752f925582b8e739868f02205e69add76e6b001073ad6b7df5f32a681fc8513ee0f6e126ee1c2d45149bd91d01feffffff5a72d60b58300974c5d4731e29b437ea61b87b6733bb3ca6ce5548ef8887d05b0000000049483045022100a7f5b2ee656a5a904fb27f982210de6858dfb165777ec969a77ea1c2c82975a4022001a1a563dbc3714047ec855f7aee901e756b851e255f35435e85c2ba7b0abd8401feffffff60d68e9d5650d55bc9e0b2a65ed27a3b9bceac4955760aa1560408854c3b148d000000004948304502210081a6f0c8232c52f3eaca825965077e88b816e503834989be4afb3f44f87eb98202207ae8becb99efe379fb269f477e7bb70d117dcb83e106c53b7addaa9715029da101feffffff63e2239425aad544f6e1157d5ee245d2500d4e9e9daf8049e0a38add6246da890000000049483045022100e0ab1752e8fbb244b63f7dd5649f2222e0dc42fae293b758e0c28082f77560b60220013f72fbe50acf4af197890b4d18fa89094055ed66f9226a6b461cc4ff560f8e01feffffff6aad4151087f4209ace714193dd64f770305dfb89470b79cca538b88253fbbef0000000049483045022100fee4a5f7ec6e8b55bd6aa0e93b5399af724039171d998b926e8095b70953d5f202203db0d4ef9d1bd57aeff0fe3d47d4358ec0559135dac8107507741eef0638279201feffffff7ddbca5854e25e6a2dfeacfe5828267cd1ef5d86e1da573fe2c2b21b45ecd6ce0000000049483045022100bf45241525592df4625642972dbc940ef74771139dd844bc6a9517197d01488c02203c99ca98892cc2693e8fbb9a600962eec84494fb8596acf0d670822624e497c901feffffff8672949de559e76601684c4ac3731599fd965d0c412e7df9f8ec16038d4420a60000000049483045022100b5a9bd3c6718c6bd2a8300bbd1d9de0ff1c5d02aeb6a659c52bb88958e7e3b0302207f710db1ef975c22edf54e063169aae31bbe470166cc0e5c34fd27b730b8e7d001feffffff8e006b0bb8cef2c5c2a11c8c2aa7d3ba01cb4386c7f780c45bc1014142b425f00000000048473044022046dc9db8daeb09b7c0b9f48013c8af2d0a71f688adaa8d91b40891768c852d4a02204fa15da6d58851191344a56c63bf51a540ec03f73117a3446230bb58a8a4bcce01feffffffbad05b8f86182b9b7c9c5aaa9ce3dc8d08a76848e49a2d9b8dcfb0f764bb26ca000000004847304402200682379dc36cb486309eac4913f41ac19638525677edad45ca8d9a2b0728b12f02203fb44f8a46cbc4c02f5699d7d4d9cd810bdf7e7c981b421218ccbcb7b73845f501feffffffd35228fe9ef0a742eacffc4a13f15ed7ba23854e6cb49d5010810ac11b5bdf690000000048473044022030045b882500808bd707f4654becc63de070818c82716310d39576decdd724e3022034d3b41cb5e939f0011bb5251be7941b6077fde5f4eff59afd8e49a2844288f701fefffffff5ae4cbd4ae8d68b5a34be3231cdc88b660447175f39cf7a86397f37641d4aa70000000049483045022100afe16f0de96a8629d6148f93520d690f30126c37e7f7f05300745a1273d7eb7202200933f6b371c4ea522570f3ec2aee9be2b59730b634e828f543bcdb019cf4749901fefffffff633f61ac61683221cc3d2665cf4bcf193af1c8ffe9d3d756ba83cc5eb7643250000000049483045022100ef0b8853c94d60634eff2fc1d4d75872aacb0a2d3242308b7ee256b24739c614022069fe9be8288bdd635871c263c46be710c001729d43f6fbc1350ed1a693c4646301feffffff0250780000000000001976a91464ed7fb2fe0b06f4cad0d731b122222e3e91088a88ac80c5005a000000001976a9142fed0f02d008f89f6a874168e506e2d4f9bcbfb888acd32b0000"
}

After creating a transaction, it has to be confirmed and recorded in the Blockchain, the transaction has to be included in a block. Most of the applications require 6 block confirmations to consider the transaction as irreversible. If that is your case, you can mine additional 6 blocks into your Regtest chain:

$ bitcoin-cli -regtest generate 6
[
  "33549b2aa249f0a814db4a2ba102194881c14a2ac041c23dcc463b9e4e128e9f",
  "2cc5c2012e2cacf118f9db4cdd79582735257f0ec564418867d6821edb55715e",
  "128aaa99e7149a520080d90fa989c62caeda11b7d06ed1965e3fa7c76fa1d407",
  "6037cc562d97eb3984cca50d8c37c7c19bae8d79b8232b92bec6dcc9708104d3",
  "2cb276f5ed251bf629dd52fd108163703473f57c24eac94e169514ce04899581",
  "57193ba8fd2761abf4a5ebcb4ed1a9ec2e873d67485a7cb41e75e13c65928bf3"
]

Testing with Regtest

When you are on regtest, you are able to simulate edge cases and attacks that might happen in the real world, such as Double Spend. We are going to use the package bitcointest by dgarage to simulate a transaction from one wallet to another, but you can check their guide for more specific attack simulations, such as Double Spend.

First of all, you need to install Node.js, and use the NPM (Node Package Manager) to install bitcointest:

$ curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
$ sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
$ npm install -g bitcointest

After installing bitcointest, you can create the test.js file with the following content:

$ nano test.js

const { BitcoinNet, BitcoinGraph } = require('bitcointest');
const net = new BitcoinNet('/usr/local/bin', '/tmp/bitcointest/', 22001, 22002);
const graph = new BitcoinGraph(net);

try {

  console.log('Launching nodes...');
  
  const nodes = net.launchBatchS(4);
  const [ n1, n2 ] = nodes;
  net.waitForNodesS(nodes, 20000);

  console.log('Connected!');
  const blocks = n1.generateBlocksS(110);
  console.info('Generated 110 blocks');

  console.log(`n2.balance (before) = ${n2.getBalanceS()}`);

  const sometxid = n1.sendToNodeS(n2, 100);
  console.log(`Generated transaction = ${sometxid}`);
  n1.generateBlocksS(110);
  n2.waitForBalanceChangeS(0);

  const sometx = n2.getTransactionS(sometxid);
  console.log(`n2.balance (after) = ${n2.getBalanceS()}`);


} catch (e) {
  console.error(e);
  net.shutdownS();
  throw e;
}

When running node test.js, the command outputs:

$ node test.js
Launching nodes...
Connected!
Generated 110 blocks
n2.balance (before) = 0
Generated transaction = 91e0040c26fc18312efb80bad6ec3b00202a83465872ecf495c392a0b6afce35
n2.after (before) = 100