Overview
PyCardano is a free code library that lets programmers create, sign, and send Cardano transactions using Python, a widely used programming language. It is built for developers writing the off-chain side of DApps (apps that run on a blockchain): the regular code that prepares transactions for users, plus the tests around it1. PyCardano does this on its own, without needing separate command-line tools such as cardano-cli2.
PyCardano is one of the transaction builders for Cardano, the toolkits that turn a developer's instructions into a valid, signed transaction. Its code is open-source under the MIT license on GitHub1. Project Catalyst, Cardano's community funding program, funded early development3 and a later update for the network's governance upgrade4. A year of maintenance was paid for by a withdrawal from the Cardano treasury, a shared fund that the network votes to spend, administered by Intersect, a member-based organization for the Cardano ecosystem5.
Key Features
- Transactions without the busywork. The PyCardano transaction builder handles inputs, outputs, and fees automatically from the details you provide, and can build and sign a transaction in a single call6.
- A choice of network connections. PyCardano reads chain data and submits transactions through Blockfrost, a hosted data service, or through Ogmios, another way of talking to the network. Kupo is used together with Ogmios7.
- Smart contracts written in Python. The PyCardano guide shows how to lock funds in a smart contract (a program that runs on the blockchain) written in OpShin, a Python-based contract language, and then unlock them8.
- Tokens, staking, and wallet keys. PyCardano covers native tokens, transaction metadata (extra data attached to a transaction), staking certificates that register stake or delegate it to a pool, reward withdrawals from a reward address, and wallet keys created from a recovery phrase1.
- Governance tools included. Developers can register a DRep (a representative who votes on proposals for other ADA holders), delegate voting power, submit governance proposals, and cast votes from Python code9.
What to Expect
For developers, setup is a single pip command, the standard way to install Python packages. The PyCardano quickstart then creates a key and an address on a Cardano test network and points you to a faucet for free test ADA10. The documentation adds guides on keys and addresses, transactions, smart contracts, and governance, plus an API reference, a page-by-page guide to the library's code2. More worked examples sit in the project's examples folder on GitHub6.
PyCardano also appears in other teams' learning material. The official Aiken "Hello, World" tutorial uses it to interact with a contract written in Aiken, a separate smart contract language11. The Cardano Developer Portal lists it among its Python libraries and marks it a maintainer pick12.
PyCardano runs inside developers' own Python programs, so people who only hold ADA do not need to install it.
