Bits of Proof launches 'Red Hat for Bitcoin'

A Hungarian company is about to launch an enterprise-class software product designed to make it easy for businesses to create bitcoin-enabled applications.

Bits of Proof

(BOP) calls the open-source software, "Red Hat for Bitcoin."

The BOP Enterprise Bitcoin Server is a redone version of the core software originally designed by Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto that communicates with other computers on the Bitcoin network. Bits of Proof founder Tamas Blummer has reworked the algorithm using his own code, creating an entirely new version of the software. He then developed a messaging system allowing third-party software to communicate with it using standard web and mobile device protocols.

The result, Blummer says, is a high-performance, scalable Bitcoin node that enterprise developers don't have to tinker with. It offers virtually zero setup time and hassle, he claims. Instead, developers can concentrate on quickly rolling out their Bitcoin applications and services.

The software, which uses the Java programming framework, uses multi-threaded transaction validation. This means that its performance scales with the number of processors available on the hardware used.

"Satoshi is a genius, but his implementation of the protocol is hard to maintain and extend," Blummer wrote in November, when he first made the code available for community review. "I believe that peers will specialize and this implementation is suited for the big server, tailored for some heavy lifting tasks, not for a mobile."

At the Bitcoin 2013 conference this weekend, attendees will see a public demonstration of the product. They will also get complimentary three-month access to the server, which the company says represents a $650 value.