List of Bitcoin consensus rules?

Is there a comprehensive list of Bitcoin's core consensus rules anywhere?

In the Bitcoinwiki "Full Node" article it says:

Here are examples of consensus rules, though there are many more:

Blocks may only create a certain number of bitcoins. (Currently 12.5 BTC per block.)

Transactions must have correct signatures for the bitcoins being spent.

Transactions/blocks must be in the correct data format.

Within a single block chain, a transaction output cannot be double-spent.

I've looked around for a list of the "many more" but haven't located one yet.

consensus

Colman McMahon

Posted 2017-04-06T15:59:37.200

Reputation: 125

In reading bitcoinwiki "Consensus" page, I spotted this sentence: For clarity, these rules should be called hard rules or the rules of Bitcoin instead of consensus rules. This lead me to the "Protocol rules" page (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_rules) which provides lists of "tx" messages and "block" messages. I'm guessing these are part of the rule set? Are there more...?

– Colman McMahon – 2017-04-06T16:13:36.803

Answers

in fact the current consensus rules are defined in code of bitcoin client which is used today by majority. this is by the definition of term "consensus". tomorrow we can have another consensus rules.

the wiki page https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_rules is good, but it does not describe BIP16 and many other protocol improvements which were already put as consensus rules (CSV, CLTV opcodes handling, may be something else)

some things mentioned on wiki page seems to be wrong, for example the transaction can be less than 100 bytes (tx messsages, rule #6)

amaclin

Posted 2017-04-06T15:59:37.200

Reputation: 5 763

Thanks. I get that they're in the code, I was just wondering if they'd been transposed to a written list anywhere. I might get started on one. I also noticed a few inconsistencies on the wiki page. – Colman McMahon – 2017-04-07T08:54:06.743