Write instructions on offline signing.

gmaxwell commented at 8:45 pm on January 8, 2017: contributor

The only instructions I’m aware of for offline signing are https://people.xiph.org/~greg/signdemo.txt which is really out of date, doesn’t cover watching wallets, or fundrawtransaction.

gmaxwell commented at 8:45 pm on January 8, 2017: contributor

Please assign me.

maflcko assigned gmaxwell on Jan 8, 2017

maflcko added the label Docs and Output on Jan 8, 2017

maflcko added the label Wallet on Jan 8, 2017

adamjonas commented at 7:58 pm on August 27, 2020: member

Greg’s signdemo.txt file is no longer online, but I’ve put up a copy here for those that would like to reference.

pinheadmz commented at 7:53 pm on April 12, 2023: member

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/external-signer.md was added by @Sjors over 2 years ago. I also found some good answers about signrawtransaction on stack exchange. There is also https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/psbt.md which is about as old. I think PSBT was added to Bitcoin after this issue was opened and although the guides are more geared to multisig, they cover a lot. @adamjonas do you think those docs are good enough to close this issue? Otherwise I can add something that exemplifies the manual process with signrawtransaction etc

Sjors commented at 12:20 pm on April 13, 2023: member

I think that with PSBT there’s no need to go out of our way to document the legacy signrawtransaction.

The external signer docs kind of assume a connected device / service, so not really “offline”. The PSBT doc could probably be updated to use descriptor wallets rather than createmultisig, though creating descriptors by hand is a bit tedious at the moment.

The multisig tutorial is more up to date, uses descriptors as well as PSBT. It doesn’t explicitly mention offline use, but it’s not incompatible either.

pinheadmz commented at 1:07 pm on April 13, 2023: member

@Sjors maybe something like this in a new doc with create/sign PSBT commands added?

#24829 (comment)

Tracachang commented at 1:32 pm on April 22, 2023: none

Hello, I wrote a step by step tutorial on bitcointalk forum about offline signing one year ago if it can help.

Screenshots are not online any more but I do still have them on another website if needed.

pinheadmz commented at 6:00 pm on May 1, 2023: member

Hello, I wrote a step by step tutorial on bitcointalk forum about offline signing one year ago if it can help.

Screenshots are not online any more but I do still have them on another website if needed.

Hey I just took a quick look at this guide and it looks nice and simple. I think it would make a nice addition to the core docs, with links to & from some of current docs like psbt.md external-signer.md and maybe even managing-wallets.md. I mention those just so you don’t have to include steps like how to back up a wallet redundantly.

Tracachang commented at 8:37 am on May 2, 2023: none

Thank you, just let me know how to proceed in case you want me to rewrite the tutorial or need me to add more information. Always happy to help.

pinheadmz assigned pinheadmz on Jun 2, 2023

achow101 closed this on Nov 6, 2023

Write instructions on offline signing. #9492