Before using the Bitcoin/Litecoin License Manager License Key Generator you need to have produced text file of wallet IDs. Read how to generate this file here.

License Key Generation

A license key is a serialize Java License object. Code for the License object can be found in the License.java file. This object contains various parameters that you the developer (also referred to as the “merchant” in the code) will set. To make setting parameters and serializing License objects easy, I have written an app that will collect the parameters and serialize them into a cryptographically secure License object for you. Here is the main interface when using Litecoin:

Here is a table of the various License parameters and their usage:

Using the “Select the file…” button select your wallet ID file. The License key generator will attempt to determine whether you are working with Bitcoin or Litecoin wallet IDs and display the appropriate icon. The currency type is determined from the first letter of the first wallet ID in the wallet IDs file, using the following table:

If you are working with a multi-sig wallet (3 or M), you will be prompted to indicate Bitcoin or Litecoin. Select the other parameters and push “generate”. You will find a new license directory inside the directory holding you wallet ID files. Each file is inside a directory that is named with the last eight characters of the wallet ID. All wallet IDs in a single file must be of the same type i.e. have the same first character.
Once licenses have been generated you can inspect the parameters of a serialized file using the inspector tab of the License Key Generator:

If you specified the cost in dollars, the expected currency of payment is indicated, but not the amount. The amount will be calculated at the time of licensing, using current valuations. For this reason (amongst others) the user needs to be connected to the internet during the licensing process.

A goal of the Bitcoin/Litecoin License Manager is to allow you the developer to non-interactively collect licensing fees for your software. Since there are no third party arbitrators of disputes, any issues that arise will force an interaction between you and your customers. Therefore you want the process to be as easy as possible while at the same time discouraging cheating on the part of the users. A few scenarios are outlined below, with increasing security, but also placing more burden on the customer.

Scenario I: Shareware with the opportunity for donations

Confirmations required = 0
Transaction expiration = 8760 hours ( 1 year, essentially inactivating this feature)
License expiration = 36500 days (100 years, essentially a perpetual license)

In this scenario you are using the BLLM as a means to provide the user with your wallet ID and make it easy to collect donations. If a donation is provided, the “Licensed” panel will display for the user.

Scenario II: Trial period

Confirmations required = 3
Transaction expiration = 48 hours
Trial expiration = 14 days
License expiration = 365 days

You are providing the user with 14 days to evaluate your software. At the end of 14 days the licensed flag is set to false and the software is locked down. A payment will unlock the software for 365 days. After 365 days have passed, a new payment will provide an additional 365 days of license.

Scenario III: Feature lock down

Similar to above only rather than locking down the entire application, only certain features are locked down by checking the value of LicenseManager.getLicenseStatus()

Notes on parameters

Number of confirmation required: Generally 3 is considered good to avoid double spending. 6 would be high security. 0 is for the ease of use for the customer as it would require no waiting.

Transaction expiration in hours: Requires the customer to confirm the transaction within X number of hours. 8760 hours (1 year) is for ease of use. Use small values if you have multiple geographically colocalized (same company) customers who might make a single payment used to confirm multiple licenses. A limited time window for confirmation prevents users from scanning the blockchain for transfers to your wallet and using those transfers to validate their license. Avoid this possibility by giving each user a separate wallet ID and setting transaction expiration to 8760 hours.

Java Web Start

If you have Java 1.8 installed and security is properly configured, you can run the License Key Generator as a Web Start application by clicking here. Otherwise download the jar from github. Javadocs are available here.

You are ready now to integrate the license plugin with your application.

For an introduction to the Bitcoin/Litecoin License Manager, read this post. I will use Litecoin wallet ID generation in this example, but the steps are the same for Bitcoin.

Litecoin wallet installation

There are numerous ways to work with Litecoin, including using the core software directly. I recommend Electrum-ltc, a lightweight, deterministic brain wallet. Use Electrum for bitcoin. Follow the installation directions, generate your seed, then generate a bunch of Wallet IDs, as many as you would like to generate Litecoin Licenses for. Go to the Electrum console and type the command listaddresses() to get the following view:

These addresses can now be copied into a text file, one wallet ID per line. Do not include quotes or other special characters (beware of blank spaces) so remove them with find/replace. The final file should look like:

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LNHcyCddhGn6WeMg9kK6kAUEVMgUzcaNTj 
LT3mYRc9r7aH75AKi1sJNF1DAcnUGceBeE 
LYSZ5tShMZXinQJeziNCb3nQohHhxdSgNS 
LUjzVxJet4fbk6Vj8nGjkWieV5L2HFqcmB 
LWPw8duwhe9oEK3EU5MQui9rXeEV9NTKF8 
LYyUQG3c6tohhyE5cYCw6jdyxsee2wyryf 
LSXV7tUc31fq6QYRjXmo1ojWnfNBji67B4 
LTWW9W8C8Fc6eeyYJUdWafnG6ZjMw3fTSm 

Once you have generated a wallet IDs file, you are ready to move on to the next step, which is generating a license key file for each wallet ID using the Bitcoin/Litecoin Licence Manager Licence Key Generator.

Introduction

The Bitcoin/Litecoin License Manager is a Java plug-in that will allow you to non-interactively collect software licensing fees from your customers using the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin or Litecoin. Give the banksters and rentier-wannabes (e.g. Stripe, PayPal) the finger and take charge of your own finances. Why pay their fees and risk deplatforming at their whim?

You may want to consider Litecoin instead of Bitcoin. Why?:

• Availability: Litecoin is available on most exchanges and is readily exchanged for Dollars or Bitcoin. Check out Coinbase, which also provides you with a wallet.

• Wallets: Multiple wallets are available. My favorite is the lightweight, deterministic brain wallet Electrum

• Low volatility relative to Bitcoin.

• Faster transaction times relative to Bitcoin. A block ascceptance time of 2.5 minutes relative to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes.

• Lower transaction fees relative to Bitcoin. A recent $99 million Litecoin transaction took 25 minutes and cost 40 cents in fees.

• Litecoin also has an increased maximum number of coins 84,000,000 vs. Bitcoin’s 21,000,000 and a different hashing algorithm - scrypt vs. SHA-256.

A Bitcoin/Litecoin License encapsulates a variety of parameters such as license expiration date, number of transaction confimations required, transaction expiration, etc. that allow you to balance ease of Licence attainment with security. Utilizing the Bitcoin/Litecoin License Manager is a three step process:

1. Set up your Bitcoin or Litecoin Wallet and generate wallet IDs.

2. Use the Bitcoin/Litecoin License Manager License Key Generator to generate license keys containing your parameters of interest.

3. Integrate the Bitcoin/Litecoin License Manager with your own software.

A video overview of the process is available on youtube:

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