Bitcoin Core Fee Rate Estimator

• A full-stack application for monitoring and validating Bitcoin Core transaction fee estimates against actual block data.
• Built on top of Bitcoin Core PR #34075

Overview

This project tracks estimatesmartfee from a Bitcoin Core node and compares those estimates with the feerate percentiles of subsequent blocks. It provides a visual interface to verify the accuracy of the node's fee predictions.

Key Features

• Fee Estimate Tracking: A background service polls Bitcoin Core every 7 seconds for smart fee estimates.
• Historical Accuracy: Visualizes the accuracy of estimates (within range, overpaid, or underpaid) compared to real block data.
• Mempool Diagram: Real-time visualization of the mempool fee/weight accumulation curve.
• Block Statistics: Direct insights into feerate percentiles for recent blocks.

Architecture

• Backend (Python/Flask): Communicates with Bitcoin Core via RPC. Collects estimates into SQLite and serves data via a REST API.
• Frontend (Next.js/TypeScript): Modern UI using Recharts and D3. Communicates with the backend via a secure API proxy route.

Project Structure

.
├── backend/            # Flask API, data collector, and SQLite database
│   ├── src/            # Core logic and RPC services
│   └── tests/          # Pytest suite for backend validation
├── frontend/           # Next.js web application
│   ├── src/app/        # App router and pages
│   └── src/components/ # D3 and Recharts visualization components
└── .github/workflows/  # Automated testing workflow

How to Use

Prerequisites

• Bitcoin Core Node: Access to a node with RPC enabled (getblockstats support required).
• Python: 3.12+
• Node.js: 22+

1. Configuration

• Backend: Copy backend/rpc_config.ini.example to backend/rpc_config.ini and provide RPC credentials.

2. Manual Startup

Backend:

cd backend
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python src/app.py

Frontend:

cd frontend
npm install
npm run dev

3. Automated Startup

Use the provided restart.sh script to launch both services in the background:

chmod +x restart.sh
./restart.sh

Credits

• Abubakar Sadiq Ismail: Bitcoin Core contributor and architecture.
• b-l-u-e: Backend logic and service implementation.
• mercie-ux: Frontend design and visual components.
• Gemini & Claude: AI-assisted development and test automation.