The bitcoinj library is a Java implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, which allows it to maintain a wallet and send/receive transactions without needing a local copy of Bitcoin Core. It comes with full documentation and some example apps showing how to use it.
To get started, it is best to have the latest JDK and Maven installed. The HEAD of the `master` branch contains the latest development code and various production releases are provided on feature branches.
#### Building from the command line
To perform a full build use
```
mvn clean package
```
You can also run
```
mvn site:site
```
to generate a website with useful information like JavaDocs.
The outputs are under the `target` directory.
#### Building from an IDE
Alternatively, just import the project using your IDE. [IntelliJ](http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/) has Maven integration built-in and has a free Community Edition. Simply use `File | Import Project` and locate the `pom.xml` in the root of the cloned project source tree.
### Example applications
These are found in the `examples` module.
#### Forwarding service
This will download the block chain and eventually print a Bitcoin address that it has generated.
If you send coins to that address, it will forward them on to the address you specified.
Note that this example app *does not use checkpointing*, so the initial chain sync will be pretty slow. You can make an app that starts up and does the initial sync much faster by including a checkpoints file; see the documentation for
more info on this technique.
### Where next?
Now you are ready to [follow the tutorial](https://bitcoinj.github.io/getting-started).
