bitcoin/bitcoin ↗
Created Dec 21, 2020 · View the bitcoin/bitcoin repository page
Bitcoin Core integration/staging tree
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Contributors
951
Lines of Code
59,555
From
Aug 30, 2009
To
Dec 21, 2020
About bitcoin/bitcoin
Bitcoin Core is the reference implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, written in C++. It connects to the peer-to-peer Bitcoin network to download, validate, and relay blocks and transactions according to the Bitcoin consensus rules. The software includes a built-in wallet for managing bitcoins and an optional graphical user interface for users who prefer not to interact with command-line tools.
The project operates as a community-driven effort with a formal development process centered on pull requests and code review. The master branch is regularly built and tested but may not be completely stable, while official releases are tagged from release branches. A separate repository is maintained specifically for GUI development. The project emphasizes testing as critical to development, with both automated unit tests and regression tests written in Python, plus continuous integration across Windows, Linux, and macOS platforms before any code is merged.
Bitcoin Core is released under the MIT license and welcomes community contributions across code, testing, and translations. Translations are managed through Transifex rather than direct GitHub pull requests to avoid conflicts with periodic synchronization from the translation platform. Given Bitcoin's role in financial systems, the project treats code review and testing as bottleneck activities where security and correctness are paramount.