Bob Wallet SPV service transition and our new home at bobwallet.org
Bob LearnHNS now uses a community-maintained SPV helper. HTools and Handshake seed infrastructure remain separate, while bobwallet.io redirects to bobwallet.org.
What Bob users need to know
The long-running SPV helper at https://api.handshakeapi.com/hsd
is expected to wind down around August 31, 2026. Upgrade to Bob LearnHNS 2.3.0 and use
https://spv.learnhns.com/hsd instead.
A community SPV service is taking over
Bob Wallet's SPV mode depends on a helper API for indexed, read-only blockchain lookups. The operator of the helper Bob historically used has told us that the service is expected to be wound down at the end of August. We are grateful for the time and infrastructure that operator contributed to the Handshake community.
Because the exact shutdown timing is controlled by the former operator, users should treat August 31 as an approximate final date and move before then. We do not expect the old helper to be maintained or updated after the transition.
The replacement is live
LearnHNS now operates a full, indexed HSD node behind a restricted SPV gateway at spv.learnhns.com/hsd. The gateway exposes only the read-only methods Bob needs; it does not receive wallet seeds, private keys, or signing authority.
We monitor the public endpoint with recurring compatibility checks. We have also published the Bob SPV Helper API v1 documentation and its plain Markdown standard so other community operators can build compatible helpers.
What you should do
- Download Bob LearnHNS 2.3.0 or a newer release from bobwallet.org.
- Restart Bob after installing the update.
-
In Bob's node settings, confirm the active SPV helper is
https://spv.learnhns.com/hsd. - Wait for Bob to show Synchronised before submitting time-sensitive auction transactions.
Version 2.3.0 makes the LearnHNS helper the default and automatically migrates installations still using Bob's former default. User-configured custom helpers are preserved. Full-node users and users of another compatible helper do not need to change their node setup.
bobwallet.org is the canonical home
Bob Wallet's public website now lives at bobwallet.org. The former bobwallet.io domain now permanently redirects to bobwallet.org, including its www address.
Please use bobwallet.org for current downloads, documentation, standards, and future announcements. Updating bookmarks and community links helps everyone reach the actively maintained source of truth.
Clarification added August 14, 2026
What this transition does—and does not—affect
Community members asked whether the SPV helper transition also means HTools, Handshake's mainnet seeds, or older Bob builds are shutting down. These are separate pieces of infrastructure.
Will HTools stay online?
Yes. Rithvik, the developer and operator of HTools, clarified:
“All my HTools stuff is / will stay up but not actively maintained. This includes one of the seed nodes and the DNS seeder.”
In other words, HTools is expected to remain available, but users should not interpret availability as a promise of ongoing feature development or active maintenance.
What happens to HSD's mainnet seeds?
Nothing in the Bob SPV helper migration changes HSD's peer-discovery configuration or the Handshake
network. The
current HSD mainnet source
lists two default DNS seeds:
hs-mainnet.bcoin.ninja and
seed.htools.work. Rithvik's statement
confirms that the HTools DNS seeder and one HTools seed node are staying online.
Seed services help a new node discover initial peers; they are not the Handshake blockchain itself. Once a node has peers, it participates directly in the peer-to-peer network. More independently operated and maintained seed infrastructure would still improve resilience.
What about HNSD and its built-in seed list?
HNSD is a lightweight Handshake resolver with its own compiled-in seed list; it is not Bob's hosted SPV helper. An open upstream proposal, handshake-org/hnsd PR #134, replaces many inaccessible peers with a newer snapshot discovered through hnsnodes while retaining Rithvik's seed node.
Shadstone tested that proposal from Bangkok: reachable seed addresses improved from 9 of 56 on current master to 19 of 21 in the proposed list. After one syntax issue was corrected, the branch built, its test suite passed, and a runtime smoke test began syncing headers. All four upstream CI checks currently pass. The PR is still open and requires action from the upstream HNSD maintainers before it reaches official builds.
Can the helper be replaced in old Bob repositories or builds?
The open-source repository can be changed and a new application can be built—that is what Bob LearnHNS 2.3.0 does. But an installer or application binary that users already downloaded cannot be remotely rewritten. An older build can use a replacement only if it already exposes a working custom-helper setting or the user installs a newly built release.
We also cannot rely on redirecting the former helper domain because its ownership and future control are not confirmed. Upgrading to Bob LearnHNS 2.3.0 or newer is therefore the reliable migration path.