Query LOCAL Bitcoin blockchain with C# .NET

Solution 1:

The first and second attempts in your question are nothing alike. First one uses json rpc to ask the daemon for the balance (and I dare say it's the proper way - you don't take the top off your car engine and push the pistons up and down yourself to achieve forward motion, do you?) the second attempts to open the daemon's database itself and calculate the balance directly.

You don't "need a network" to query the localhost, you just need a machine that has TCP/IP support installed, so just use the first method by whatever means - either by using a library that writes the relevant json-rpc data into an http request, or by forming the relevant http request yourself..

BitcoinLib may or may not be maintained (I don't know) but that doesn't invalidate its ability to query your local daemon; as far as I know GetBalance hasn't been removed or refactored, and I use BitcoinLib with the latest bitcoind for a variety of operations including GetBalance