diff --git a/contrib/misc/example-mkbootstrap.cfg b/contrib/misc/example-mkbootstrap.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9e5aa404c2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/misc/example-mkbootstrap.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+
+# bitcoind RPC settings
+rpcuser=someuser
+rpcpass=somepassword
+host=127.0.0.1
+port=8332
+
+# bootstrap.dat settings
+netmagic=f9beb4d9
+max_height=250000
+output=bootstrap.dat
+
diff --git a/contrib/misc/mkbootstrap.py b/contrib/misc/mkbootstrap.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..2dedc1d94d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/misc/mkbootstrap.py
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+#
+# Copyright (c) 2013 The Bitcoin developers
+# Distributed under the MIT/X11 software license, see the accompanying
+# file COPYING or http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php.
+#
+
+import json
+import struct
+import re
+import base64
+import httplib
+import sys
+
+ERR_SLEEP = 15
+MAX_NONCE = 1000000L
+
+settings = {}
+
+class BitcoinRPC:
+	OBJID = 1
+
+	def __init__(self, host, port, username, password):
+		authpair = "%s:%s" % (username, password)
+		self.authhdr = "Basic %s" % (base64.b64encode(authpair))
+		self.conn = httplib.HTTPConnection(host, port, False, 30)
+	def rpc(self, method, params=None):
+		self.OBJID += 1
+		obj = { 'version' : '1.1',
+			'method' : method,
+			'id' : self.OBJID }
+		if params is None:
+			obj['params'] = []
+		else:
+			obj['params'] = params
+		self.conn.request('POST', '/', json.dumps(obj),
+			{ 'Authorization' : self.authhdr,
+			  'Content-type' : 'application/json' })
+
+		resp = self.conn.getresponse()
+		if resp is None:
+			print "JSON-RPC: no response"
+			return None
+
+		body = resp.read()
+		resp_obj = json.loads(body)
+		if resp_obj is None:
+			print "JSON-RPC: cannot JSON-decode body"
+			return None
+		if 'error' in resp_obj and resp_obj['error'] != None:
+			return resp_obj['error']
+		if 'result' not in resp_obj:
+			print "JSON-RPC: no result in object"
+			return None
+
+		return resp_obj['result']
+	def getblock(self, hash, verbose=True):
+		return self.rpc('getblock', [hash, verbose])
+	def getblockhash(self, index):
+		return self.rpc('getblockhash', [index])
+
+def getblock(rpc, settings, n):
+	hash = rpc.getblockhash(n)
+	hexdata = rpc.getblock(hash, False)
+	data = hexdata.decode('hex')
+
+	return data
+
+def get_blocks(settings):
+	rpc = BitcoinRPC(settings['host'], settings['port'],
+			 settings['rpcuser'], settings['rpcpass'])
+
+	outf = open(settings['output'], 'wb')
+
+	for height in xrange(settings['max_height']+1):
+		data = getblock(rpc, settings, height)
+
+		outhdr = settings['netmagic']
+		outhdr += struct.pack("<i", len(data))
+
+		outf.write(outhdr)
+		outf.write(data)
+
+		if (height % 1000) == 0:
+			sys.stdout.write("Wrote block " + str(height) + "\n")
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+	if len(sys.argv) != 2:
+		print "Usage: mkbootstrap.py CONFIG-FILE"
+		sys.exit(1)
+
+	f = open(sys.argv[1])
+	for line in f:
+		# skip comment lines
+		m = re.search('^\s*#', line)
+		if m:
+			continue
+
+		# parse key=value lines
+		m = re.search('^(\w+)\s*=\s*(\S.*)$', line)
+		if m is None:
+			continue
+		settings[m.group(1)] = m.group(2)
+	f.close()
+
+	if 'netmagic' not in settings:
+		settings['netmagic'] = 'f9beb4d9'
+	if 'output' not in settings:
+		settings['output'] = 'bootstrap.dat'
+	if 'host' not in settings:
+		settings['host'] = '127.0.0.1'
+	if 'port' not in settings:
+		settings['port'] = 8332
+	if 'max_height' not in settings:
+		settings['max_height'] = 250000
+	if 'rpcuser' not in settings or 'rpcpass' not in settings:
+		print "Missing username and/or password in cfg file"
+		sys.exit(1)
+
+	settings['netmagic'] = settings['netmagic'].decode('hex')
+	settings['port'] = int(settings['port'])
+	settings['max_height'] = int(settings['max_height'])
+
+	get_blocks(settings)
+
+