Welcome to Bitcoin Open Source Development
Bitcoin is open source money built by thousands of contributors worldwide. In this final stage, you'll learn how Bitcoin Core development works, understand Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs), and make your first contribution to the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Contributing to Bitcoin is more than just code—it's about understanding consensus, respecting backward compatibility, and helping secure the world's most important financial network.
🌟 Why Contribute to Bitcoin?
- Learn from the best: Bitcoin Core has some of the highest code quality standards in the industry
- Make an impact: Your contributions can affect billions of dollars and millions of users
- Join the community: Work alongside world-class developers, cryptographers, and economists
- Build your reputation: Bitcoin contributions are highly valued in the industry
- Protect financial freedom: Help maintain the most censorship-resistant money ever created
Modules
Module 1: Bitcoin Core Development
1
Dive into the Bitcoin Core codebase. Understand the project structure, development workflow,
testing framework, and the rigor required for consensus-critical code.
Topics Covered:
- Bitcoin Core architecture and codebase tour
- Development workflow and contribution process
- Comprehensive testing framework (unit, functional, fuzz)
- Code review culture and expectations
- Running and understanding the test suite
Module 2: BIPs and Protocol Evolution
2
Learn how Bitcoin evolves through Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs). Understand soft forks vs
hard forks, study major protocol upgrades like Taproot, and analyze the consensus process.
Topics Covered:
- Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) process
- Soft forks vs hard forks (technical and social aspects)
- Case studies: SegWit, Taproot, Schnorr signatures
- Consensus mechanisms and activation paths
- How to read and analyze BIPs effectively
Module 3: Your First Contribution
3
Make your first contribution to Bitcoin or a related project. Learn how to find good first issues,
submit pull requests, respond to review feedback, and become a trusted contributor.
Topics Covered:
- Finding good first issues and documentation tasks
- Setting up your development environment
- Creating quality pull requests
- Code review process and responding to feedback
- Building your contribution history
- Beyond code: docs, testing, issue triage, reviews