Claude-skill-registry btc-terminology

Critical Bitcoin terminology rules to prevent confusion between bech32m (encoding) and taproot (address type). Use when working on BTC-related code, config files, or shell scripts.

install
source · Clone the upstream repo
git clone https://github.com/majiayu000/claude-skill-registry
Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/
T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/majiayu000/claude-skill-registry "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/data/btc-terminology" ~/.claude/skills/majiayu000-claude-skill-registry-btc-terminology && rm -rf "$T"
manifest: skills/data/btc-terminology/SKILL.md
source content

BTC Terminology Rules

🚨 CRITICAL: Bech32m vs Taproot

This is a common source of bugs. Do NOT confuse these terms:

TermWhat It IsWhere Used
bech32mEncoding format (HOW address is serialized)Bitcoin Core RPC, shell scripts
taprootAddress type (WHAT the address represents)Config files, domain model

Key Rule:

bech32m
taproot
— They are related but NOT interchangeable.

Quick Reference Table

ContextCorrect TermExample
Config YAML/TOML files
taproot
address_type: "taproot"
Environment variables
taproot
WALLET_ADDRESS_TYPE="taproot"
Bitcoin Core CLI/RPC
bech32m
bitcoin-cli getnewaddress "" bech32m
Shell scripts (receiver addresses)
bech32m
getnewaddress "" bech32m
Go domain code (
internal/domain/address/
)
taproot
AddrTypeTaproot
Go Bitcoin Core interface (
internal/domain/bitcoin/
)
bech32m
AddressTypeTaproot = "bech32m"

Common Mistakes

❌ WRONG

# Config file - DON'T use bech32m
address_type: "bech32m"  # WRONG!
# Shell script - DON'T use taproot for Bitcoin Core RPC
bitcoin-cli getnewaddress "" taproot  # WRONG!

✅ CORRECT

# Config file - Use taproot
address_type: "taproot"  # CORRECT!
# Shell script - Use bech32m for Bitcoin Core RPC
bitcoin-cli getnewaddress "" bech32m  # CORRECT!

Technical Background

Why Two Different Terms?

  1. Taproot (BIP341) = SegWit version 1 address type (P2TR - Pay-to-Taproot)
  2. Bech32m (BIP350) = Encoding format that fixes checksum issues in original Bech32

All Taproot addresses are encoded using bech32m, but:

  • User-facing config uses "taproot" (what you want)
  • Bitcoin Core RPC uses "bech32m" (how it's encoded)

Address Format Comparison

EncodingSegWit VersionAddress TypePrefixConfig Value
Base58N/AP2PKH
1...
legacy
Base58N/AP2SH
3...
p2sh-segwit
Bech32v0P2WPKH
bc1q...
bech32
Bech32mv1P2TR
bc1p...
taproot

Codebase Mapping

The project has two different type definitions:

// internal/domain/bitcoin/address_type.go
// For Bitcoin Core RPC communication
AddressTypeTaproot AddressType = "bech32m"  // Bitcoin Core uses "bech32m"

// internal/domain/address/types.go
// For user-facing configuration
AddrTypeTaproot AddrType = "taproot"  // User sees "taproot"

Conversion between these is handled by mapper functions:

// internal/infrastructure/api/btc/btc/mapper.go
// FromAddressType: "bech32m" (Bitcoin Core) → "taproot" (user-facing)
// ToAddressType:   "taproot" (user-facing) → "bech32m" (Bitcoin Core)

Verification Checklist

When working with Taproot/Bech32m code:

  • Config files (YAML/TOML) use
    address_type: "taproot"
  • Environment variables use
    WALLET_ADDRESS_TYPE="taproot"
  • Bitcoin Core RPC calls in shell scripts use
    bech32m
  • Shell scripts generating receiver addresses use
    bech32m
  • Go code uses correct type for the layer:
    • Domain/config layer:
      AddrTypeTaproot
      (value:
      "taproot"
      )
    • Bitcoin Core interface:
      AddressTypeTaproot
      (value:
      "bech32m"
      )

Related Files

FilePurpose
internal/domain/address/types.go
User-facing
AddrType
definitions
internal/domain/bitcoin/address_type.go
Bitcoin Core
AddressType
definitions
internal/infrastructure/api/btc/btc/mapper.go
Type conversion functions
docs/crypto/btc/taproot/user-guide.md
Taproot user guide

Related Documentation

  • BIP350 - Bech32m specification
  • BIP341 - Taproot specification
  • BIP86 - Taproot key derivation (m/86'/...)