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ckBTC API reference

Reference

ckBTC minter API endpoints​

The ckBTC minter canister is controlled by the NNS and running on the pzp6e subnet. In the configuration of the ckBTC minter canister, the following are set:

  • retrieve_btc_min_amount: The minimum ckBTC amount that can be burned and, correspondingly, the minimum BTC amount that can be withdrawn. The parameter is set to 0.001 BTC, or 100_000 Satoshi.
  • max_time_in_queue_nanos: Any BTC retrieval request should be kept in a queue for, at most, this time. Caching requests rather than handling them right away has the advantage that multiple requests can be served in a single transaction, saving Bitcoin miner fees. The parameter is set to 10 minutes, which corresponds to the expected time between Bitcoin blocks.
  • min_confirmations: The number of confirmations required for the ckBTC minter to accept a Bitcoin transaction. The ckBTC minter does not mint ckBTC before a transaction transferring BTC reaches this number of transactions. The parameter is set to 6.
  • kyt_fee: The fee that must be paid for KYT checks, set to 2_000 Satoshi.

There are other parameters that are self-explanatory and can be found in the ckBTC minter Candid file.

ckBTC minter API endpoints​

The ckBTC minter provides the following API endpoints that can be used to interact with the canister:

  • get_btc_address: Returns a specific Bitcoin address that the caller can use to obtain ckBTC by sending BTC to this address.
  • update_balance: Instructs the ckBTC minter to check the balance of a Bitcoin address and mint ckBTC into the account of the owner.
  • estimate_withdrawal_fee: Returns a current estimate for the fee to be paid when retrieving a certain BTC amount.
  • get_deposit_fee: Returns the fee charged when minting ckBTC.
  • retrieve_btc_with_approval: Instructs the ckBTC minter to burn a certain ckBTC amount and send the corresponding BTC amount, minus fees, to a provided Bitcoin address.
  • retrieve_btc: This endpoint provides the same function as retrieve_btc_with_approval but with a different retrieval flow. Developers are encouraged to use the retrieve_btc_with_approval endpoint.
  • get_withdrawal_account: Returns a specific ckBTC account where the owner must transfer ckBTC before being able to retrieve BTC when using the retrieve_btc endpoint.
  • retrieve_btc_status: Returns the status of a previous retrieve_btc call.
  • get_minter_info: Returns information about the ckBTC minter itself.
  • get_events: Returns a set of events at the ckBTC minter. The endpoints are discussed in more detail in the following.

get_btc_address(owner: opt principal, subaccount: opt blob)​

The provided principal ID and subaccount are concatenated to form the derivation path for the ecdsa_public_key function, which returns the derived public key. If no principal ID is provided, then the sender’s principal ID is used. If no subaccount is provided, then the default subaccount (all zeros) is used.

This public key is encoded as a pay-to-witness-public-key-hash (P2WPKH) Bitcoin address and returned as a text.

Note that the key derivation is not BIP-32 compliant, where 31 bits are used for each derivation level. Instead, a single derivation is performed based on the full principal ID and subaccount. Since the derivation is deterministic, a canister can derive the Bitcoin address for a given principal ID and subaccount itself.

update_balance(owner: opt principal, subaccount: opt blob)​

The update_balance function is invoked to instruct the ckBTC minter to check if there are new UTXOs for a particular Bitcoin address.

For each newly discovered UTXO, the corresponding ckBTC amount is minted minus the deposit fee, which corresponds to the KYT fee. If there are no new UTXOs, an error is returned.

estimate_withdrawal_fee(amount: opt nat64)​

The endpoint returns an estimate for the fee that must be paid when retrieving the given BTC amount. Internally, a transaction is built (without valid signatures) to determine the fee, which consists of the Bitcoin miner fee, the ckBTC minter fee, and the KYT fee. If no amount is provided, it is assumed that three inputs are required to build the transaction.

If there is no change to the internal state of the ckBTC minter and the Bitcoin canister before issuing the request to retrieve Bitcoins, the fee will be exactly the returned estimate.

The fee can change when a new Bitcoin block is mined in the meantime, which causes the Bitcoin canister to update the Bitcoin miner fees, or when another retrieval request that spends some of the outputs that were used when estimating the fee is handled first.

get_deposit_fee​

The endpoint returns the fee that the ckBTC minter charges for minting ckBTC when receiving new UTXOs. Currently, this fee is simply the KYT fee.

retrieve_btc_with_approval(address: text, amount: nat64, from_subaccount: opt blob)​

The function instructs the ckBTC minter to burn the specified amount. Since the funds are transferred out of the user's account, the user must first grant the ckBTC minter the right for this withdrawal by calling icrc2_approve on the ckBTC ledger.

After successfully burning the specified ckBTC amount, the retrieval request is recorded. The ckBTC minter periodically goes through the pending requests and handles them by creating a Bitcoin transaction containing an output that transfers the requested amount minus fees to the specified Bitcoin address.

Since Bitcoin retrievals are handled asynchronously, the function returns the block index of the transaction burning the ckBTC tokens.

retrieve_btc(address: text, amount: nat64)​

The function provides the same functionality as retrieve_btc_with_approval with the key difference that the funds need to be transferred first to a user-specific withdrawal account under the ckBTC minter's control. It is generally recommended to use the retrieve_btc_with_approval endpoint.

get_withdrawal_account​

The function returns the caller’s withdrawal account, which is the account derived from the ckBTC minter’s principal ID and the subaccount derived from the caller’s principal ID.

A user can only retrieve BTC using the retrieve_btc endpoint by first transferring ckBTC to this particular account.

retrieve_btc_status(block_index: nat64)​

The status of a BTC retrieval request can be checked using this function. The different possible statuses are:

  • Unknown: There is no information available on the ckBTC minter because there is no retrieval request associated with the given block index or the retrieval request is old and the corresponding information has already been removed.
  • Pending: The BTC retrieval request is queued.
  • Signing: The BTC retrieval request is acquiring all signatures to serve the BTC retrieval request.
  • Sending: The Bitcoin transaction serving the BTC retrieval request is being sent.
  • Submitted: The Bitcoin transaction has been transmitted. The transaction ID is returned.
  • AmountTooLow: The BTC retrieval request could not be served because the Bitcoin miner fees are prohibitively high.
  • Confirmed: The Bitcoin transaction serving the BTC retrieval request is confirmed inside the ckBTC minter, which happens when the transaction has at least the minimum required number of confirmations specified in the min_confirmations parameter above.

get_minter_info​

The function returns the following parameters internal to the ckBTC minter:

  • kyt_fee
  • min_confirmations
  • retrieve_btc_min_amount

get_events(start: nat64, length: nat64)​

The ckBTC minter tracks the events that change its internal state. Given a start index and a length parameter, the ckBTC minter returns all events sequentially from the event at the given start index up to the event at index start+length-1.

Note that this endpoint is used for debugging purposes, and there is no guarantee that the endpoint will continue to exist in this form.