The Bitcoin and Altcoin Wallets free WordPress plugin uses coin adapters to communicate with full node wallets or cloud wallets. While cloud wallets provide convenience, full node wallets have their advantages. Users who can install and maintain a wallet on their own server infrastructure do not need to depend on a third party service to integrate their websites with coin wallets. Running a full node is not for everyone. Full node wallets use a lot of server resources and are harder to setup and maintain.

A large number of cryptocurrencies have wallets that are forks of Bitcoin core. This means that these cryptocurrencies often have the same JSON-RPC API as the Bitcoin reference wallet. Up to now, the recommended strategy was to copy and modify the Litecoin RPC adapter, which was the reference implementation for full node wallet adapters. Because most of these coins are very similar, the adapter code has been factored into a “Multi-adapter”. This is an extension that can present a range of full node coin adapters. You simply provide a list of coins and their associated data, and the multi-adapter instantiates the relevant coin adapters. You can then connect these to your actual full node wallet instances.

If you are currently already using one of the single-coin full node adapters, you may continue using it for now. But if you are interested in setting up a new site or if you wish to upgrade, then please use the Full Node Multi Coin Adapter extension. Instructions are made available in the extension’s page.