> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.validationcloud.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Overview

export const logo_0 = "/nodeapi/assets/chains/bitcoin.svg"

export const chain_0 = "Bitcoin"

<span className="chain-logo-bitcoin" />

<img className="page-cover" src="https://mintcdn.com/validation-cloud/QajBabafGojozKj4/nodeapi/assets/btc.jpg?fit=max&auto=format&n=QajBabafGojozKj4&q=85&s=5d0271a90c5f3a6e2b58c0dabb300d14" alt="" noZoom width="1990" height="480" data-path="nodeapi/assets/btc.jpg" />

<div className="not-prose my-8 flex flex-col gap-4 rounded-2xl border border-gray-950/10 p-5 sm:flex-row sm:items-center dark:border-white/10">
  <img src={logo_0} alt="" className="h-10 w-10 shrink-0" noZoom />

  <div className="flex-1">
    <p className="m-0 font-semibold text-gray-900 dark:text-gray-100">Start building on {chain_0} for free</p>
    <p className="m-0 mt-1 text-sm text-gray-600 dark:text-gray-400">Create an endpoint in under a minute. The Free plan includes 50 million compute units a month, and no credit card is required.</p>
  </div>

  <a href="https://app.validationcloud.io/auth/signup?returnTo=%2Fnode%2Fcreate-endpoint" className="shrink-0 rounded-full bg-primary px-5 py-2 text-center text-sm font-semibold text-white no-underline hover:opacity-90">Try free</a>
</div>

Bitcoin is a decentralized, proof-of-work Layer-1 blockchain that uses a UTXO model to secure peer-to-peer value transfer validated by miners and full nodes.

Bitcoin's native token is `BTC` .

`satoshis` are the smallest unit of currency on the Bitcoin blockchain, there are 100 million satoshis in 1 Bitcoin, equally 1 satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC.

## Network Support

| Network | HTTPS | WSS |
| - | - | - |
| Mainnet - including Blockbook & Esplora Indexer support | ✅ | N/A |
| Testnet (Testnet3) - Blockbook & Esplora Indexer support | ✅ | N/A |

## Getting Started

Send a request to check that your endpoint works. Replace `<YOUR_API_KEY_HERE>` with the key from your endpoint in the [Validation Cloud app](https://app.validationcloud.io/node).

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash title="mainnet" theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark-default"}}
  curl https://mainnet.bitcoin.validationcloud.io/v1/<YOUR_API_KEY_HERE> \
   -X POST \
   -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
   -d '{
  	"jsonrpc": "1.0",
  	"id": "curltest",
  	"method": "getblockcount",
  	"params": []
  }'
  ```

  ```bash title="testnet" theme={"theme":{"light":"github-light","dark":"github-dark-default"}}
  curl https://testnet.bitcoin.validationcloud.io/v1/<YOUR_API_KEY_HERE> \
   -X POST \
   -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
   -d '{
  	"jsonrpc": "1.0",
  	"id": "curltest",
  	"method": "getblockcount",
  	"params": []
  }'
  ```
</CodeGroup>

## Compute Units

| Method | Compute units |
| - | - |
| [getbestblockhash](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getbestblockhash) | 10 |
| [getblock](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getblock) | 10 |
| [getblockchaininfo](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getblockchaininfo) | 10 |
| [getblockcount](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getblockcount) | 10 |
| [getblockhash](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getblockhash) | 10 |
| [getblockheader](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getblockheader) | 10 |
| [getblockstats](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getblockstats) | 10 |
| [getchaintips](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getchaintips) | 10 |
| [getchaintxstats](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getchaintxstats) | 10 |
| [getdifficulty](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getdifficulty) | 10 |
| [getmempoolancestors](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getmempoolancestors) | 10 |
| [getmempooldescendants](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getmempooldescendants) | 10 |
| [getmempoolinfo](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getmempoolinfo) | 10 |
| [getrawmempool](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/getrawmempool) | 10 |
| [gettxout](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/gettxout) | 10 |
| [gettxoutproof](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/gettxoutproof) | 10 |
| [gettxoutsetinfo](/nodeapi/bitcoin/blockchain-rpcs/gettxoutsetinfo) | 10 |
| [getmemoryinfo](/nodeapi/bitcoin/control-rpcs/getmemoryinfo) | 10 |
| [getconnectioncount](/nodeapi/bitcoin/network-rpcs/getconnectioncount) | 10 |
| [decoderawtransaction](/nodeapi/bitcoin/rawtransactions-rpcs/decoderawtransaction) | 10 |
| [decodescript](/nodeapi/bitcoin/rawtransactions-rpcs/decodescript) | 10 |
| [getrawtransaction](/nodeapi/bitcoin/rawtransactions-rpcs/getrawtransaction) | 10 |
| [sendrawtransaction](/nodeapi/bitcoin/rawtransactions-rpcs/sendrawtransaction) | 10 |
| [testmempoolaccept](/nodeapi/bitcoin/rawtransactions-rpcs/testmempoolaccept) | 10 |
| [estimatesmartfee](/nodeapi/bitcoin/util-rpcs/estimatesmartfee) | 10 |
| [getindexinfo](/nodeapi/bitcoin/util-rpcs/getindexinfo) | 10 |
| [validateaddress](/nodeapi/bitcoin/util-rpcs/validateaddress) | 10 |
| [verifymessage](/nodeapi/bitcoin/util-rpcs/verifymessage) | 10 |

All **Blockbook & Esplora Indexer REST API** methods are valued at `10` Compute Units.


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.