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name: bitcoin-libraries-nbitcoin description: | NBitcoin: comprehensive .NET / C# Bitcoin library. Used by BTCPay Server, NBXplorer, many .NET tools. Tx, Script, PSBT, BIP32, HW wallet integration. USE WHEN: building .NET Bitcoin apps, integrating with BTCPay ecosystem. allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob

NBitcoin

The .NET / C# Bitcoin library by Nicolas Dorier. Powers BTCPay Server, NBXplorer, and many enterprise .NET integrations.

Repo: github.com/MetacoSA/NBitcoin.

Install

dotnet add package NBitcoin

Quick example

using NBitcoin;

var network = Network.Main;
var key = new Key();   // random
var addr = key.PubKey.GetAddress(ScriptPubKeyType.Segwit, network);
Console.WriteLine(addr);   // bc1q...

// Tx
var tx = network.CreateTransaction();
tx.Inputs.Add(new TxIn(new OutPoint(...), null));
tx.Outputs.Add(new TxOut(Money.Coins(0.001m), addr));

// PSBT
var psbt = PSBT.FromTransaction(tx, network);
psbt.AddCoins(prevOuts);
psbt.SignAll(ScriptPubKeyType.Segwit, key);
var finalTx = psbt.Finalize().ExtractTransaction();

Features

• Full tx + script support, all output types.
• BIP32/39 HD wallets.
• PSBT (BIP174).
• Taproot, miniscript, descriptors.
• HW wallet integration via HWI subprocess.
• Lightning (BOLT11) decode.
• RPC client.
• Custom networks (Bitcoin Cash, Liquid, etc.).

Companion projects

• NBXplorer — wallet management on top of NBitcoin.
• BTCPay Server — uses NBitcoin extensively.

Use cases

• .NET enterprise Bitcoin integration.
• BTCPay plugin development.
• Windows-native Bitcoin tools.

Common pitfalls

• API surface large; some patterns vary across versions.
• Cross-platform: .NET Core for Linux/Mac; otherwise Windows.

See also

• ../../infrastructure/btcpay/SKILL.md
• ../../protocol/psbt/SKILL.md