Welcome to the Uphold SDK for Python developers. Using this library, developers can more easily get started using the Uphold API.
To begin, visit the Uphold website and create an account. With a username and password in hand, you can begin building apps against the Uphold API immediately.
There are three ways to authenticate against the API:
OAuth is the perfect solution for when your app needs to request permission to access a user's Uphold account.
A Personal Access Token ("PAT") is ideal when you need to generate a token to access your own Uphold account.
Basic authentication (username and password) can sometimes be the easiest way to get started, but is not always the best choice from a security perspective.
You can find out more about these two methods in our API documentation.
Basic Authentication is performed when you transmit a username and password to Uphold.
Basic Auth is not recommended for most application due to security concerns, but is required in one circumstance: creating a Personal Access Token.
Please note that if your account has two factor authentication enabled, you will need to set the OTP parameter as well. The OTP parameter is the verification code sent to you when you attempt to login when 2FA is enabled.
from uphold import Uphold
api = Uphold()
api.opt( <code> )
api.auth_basic( <username>, <password> )
me = api.get_me()
A Personal Access Token, or "PAT," is ideal when you are accessing your own account. When using a PAT, two-factor authentication is bypassed making it easier to manage your account programmatically. This also means that a PAT is incredibly sensitive and extra care should be taken to protect it.
You create a PAT by calling the API. When doing so you will need to use basic authentication, and you may also need to transmit an OTP token.
Tip: Temporarily turn two-factor authentication off prior to generating a PAT. When you have a PAT, turn it back on again.
from uphold import Uphold
api = Uphold()
api.auth_basic( <username>, <password> )
api.otp( <code> )
pat = api.create_pat('This is a test auth token')
print "PAT: " + pat
from uphold import Uphold
api = Uphold()
api.auth_pat( <PAT> )
me = api.get_me()
The Uphold Sandbox is a test environment for developers to build and test their apps. The Sandbox environment uses fake money, but is otherwise an exact copy of our production system.
from uphold import Uphold
api = Uphold(True)
Transactions are conducted in two steps. First you prepare a transaction. This retrieves a quote for the transaction which will be honored for 30 seconds. This is a perfect way of generating a transaction preview for your user if you need to. Second is to execute a prepared transaction.
Below is an example of how one would send 1 BTC to someone using Uphold:
card_id = 'adc869d8-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-72718f0a2be0'
from uphold import Uphold
api = Uphold()
api.auth(<username>, <password>)
txn_id = api.prepare_txn(card_id, 'luke@skywalker.net', 1, 'BTC')
api.execute_txn(card_id, txn_id)
A couple of notes about the sample above:
A card ID is required to identify from which store of value you will be sending value from.
One may specify sending any amount in any denomination. If an exchange is implied, Uphold will handle the exchange for you automatically.
When sending money via Uphold, you can specify a recipient in the form of a bitcoin address, an email address, or a Uphold member name.
One may send money to a bitcoin address, an email address, a Uphold username, or a phone number.
For a complete reference to the Uphold API, including examples in Python, please consult the Uphold API documentation.
This software is licensed under the MIT License.