Introduction

BLVM (Bitcoin Low-Level Virtual Machine) implements Bitcoin consensus from the Orange Paper, provides protocol abstraction for multiple Bitcoin variants, a reference full node with P2P networking, a developer SDK, and cryptographic governance for transparent development.

Who is this for?

Running a Bitcoin node? Operator guide — Installation, Quick Start, Mainnet initial sync. Read Deployment posture before exposing RPC on mainnet.

Building a module or integrating with the SDK? Developer guide — Building your first module, then Building modules.

Studying the spec or contributing to consensus? The Orange Paper is the normative spec. Formal Verification explains verification. Contributors: Repository layout, Contributing.

What is BLVM?

BLVM is compiler-like infrastructure for Bitcoin implementations. The Orange Paper is the mathematical specification (IR). blvm-consensus implements those rules; BLVM Specification Lock and tests check the code against the spec. See compiler-like architecture in the glossary.

Stack:

Why "LVM"? Like LLVM’s shared compiler infrastructure, BLVM provides shared infrastructure for Bitcoin implementations—the Orange Paper is the reference spec; node and consensus code is validated against it.

Documentation Structure

  • Operators: Operator guide — install, sync, RPC, security
  • Developers: Developer guide — modules, SDK, contributing
  • Architecture – System design, module system, events
  • Layers – Consensus, protocol, node (each with overview and detailed pages)
  • Developer SDK – Module development, API reference, examples
  • Governance – Model, configuration, procedures
  • Reference – Specifications, API Index, glossary

Documentation is maintained in source repositories alongside code and is aggregated at docs.thebitcoincommons.org.

Getting Help

Report bugs or request features via GitHub Issues, ask questions in GitHub Discussions, or report security issues to security@thebitcoincommons.org.