Bitcoin is free software and any developer can contribute to the project. Everything you need is in the GitHub repository. Please make sure to read and follow the development process described in the README, as well as to provide good quality code and respect all guidelines.

Development discussion takes place on GitHub and the bitcoin-dev mailing list. Less formal development discussion happens on irc.freenode.net #bitcoin-core-dev (web interface, logs).

To report an issue, please see the bug reporting page.

Code Review

Bitcoin Core is security software that helps protect assets worth billions of dollars, so every code change needs to be reviewed by experienced developers.

It can take a long time for other developers to review your pull requests. Remember that all reviewers are taking time away from their own projects to review your pull requests, so be patient and respectful of their time.

Please also consider helping to review other people’s pull requests. You don’t need to be an expert in Bitcoin, the Bitcoin Core codebase, or C++ (although all these things help). There are almost always open pull requests that any programmer can review.

Starter Projects

Do you want to begin coding for Bitcoin Core but don’t have a specific improvement in mind? Here are a few ideas: