bdk

bdk, short for Bitcoin Development Kit, is an open-source toolkit for building Bitcoin wallets. It is written in Rust and designed to be modular and platform-agnostic, allowing developers to construct wallets and wallet-related applications without implementing low-level Bitcoin primitives from scratch.

A central feature is the descriptor-based wallet model, using output descriptors to describe keys, scripts, and addresses. This approach supports different script types and enables flexible key management, including single-sig and multi-sig configurations. The library provides core wallet functionality, such as key derivation, balance and UTXO tracking, address generation, and the construction, signing, and broadcasting of transactions. It also supports workflows involving partially signed transactions (PSBT) used in hardware wallets and custodial workflows.

bdk is designed to be backend-agnostic. The core crate defines traits for blockchain access, and there are ecosystem backends such as Esplora and Electrum-compatible servers, with separate crates implementing these backends. This design lets developers choose or implement their own blockchain backend.

Network support includes mainnet and common test networks (testnet and regtest). The project emphasizes portability, targeting desktop, mobile, and server environments, and aims to simplify cross-platform wallet development.

As an open-source project, bdk is maintained by a community of contributors and used by wallet projects and researchers to prototype and ship Bitcoin wallets more quickly. The project home and documentation are available on its public repository.