<p>As MCCCS commented, <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/3203" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/3203</a> covers this</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Rebrand client to 'Bitcoin Core' #3203</p>
<hr />
<p>laanwj opened this issue on 5 Nov 2013 · 23 comments</p>
<p><strong>laanwj commented on 5 Nov 2013</strong></p>
<p>To remove the confusion between the Bitcoin network and the reference client implementation that we maintain in this repository, both confusingly named 'bitcoin', we'd like to rebrand the client.</p>
<p>This has been discussed a lot before, but the following is the proposal by @gavinandresen and I agree:</p>
<pre><code>Bitcoin-Qt --&gt;  btcore (full name 'Bitcoin Core')
bitcoind --&gt; btcored (full name 'Bitcoin Core Daemon')
bitcoin-cli --&gt; btcore-cli (full name 'Bitcoin Core CLI Client')
</code></pre>
<p>Renaming the executables is going to break some scripts, so we'd likely want to combine it with the bitcoind CLI deprecation to make sure the migration pain is short and swift instead of drawn out.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So the primary motivation seems to have been to avoid having the one word &quot;Bitcoin&quot; refer to both of two very different things - the network of Bitcoin nodes and a specific software implementation (one of many).</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-24T09:26:15.057Z
Thanks MCCCS. I did not realise we had terminology to differentiate between the network of nodes and software implementations. I had been referring so far in my work to 'Bitcoin clients' and 'Bitcoin nodes' ect to differentiate. Cheers for the clarification here :-)
Aman Saggu
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-23T09:31:31.847Z
2020-10-23T09:31:31.847Z
RedGrittyBrick
<p>The renaming was <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/3408" rel="noreferrer">merged</a> in December 2013 with prior discussion on this GitHub <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/3203" rel="noreferrer">issue</a>. The general motivation was to distinguish between one particular implementation of the Bitcoin protocol (many refer to Bitcoin Core as the &quot;reference implementation&quot;) versus other implementations (libbitcoin, btcd, bcoin, bitcoin-s etc) that either existed at the time or came later.</p>
<p>At the time most of the well known altcoins (Litecoin, Dogecoin etc) didn't hard fork the Bitcoin blockchain. They started their blockchain from a different genesis block to Bitcoin. The well known hard forks came later in 2017 with BCH, BSV etc.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-24T09:20:00.380Z
Thanks for this Michael, this is exactly what I was looking for :-)
Aman Saggu
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-23T09:33:28.937Z
2020-10-23T09:33:28.937Z
Michael Folkson
<p>Afaik at some point in 2014/2015, Bitcoin became known as 'Bitcoin Core'. I assume this was to differentiate it from other implementations of Bitcoin.</p>
<p>When and how did this decision come about?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-23T08:45:54.043Z
You can read more about it here: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/3203
MCCCS
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-23T14:34:12.860Z
"from other hard forked variations" => This looks confused. The name isn't related to a hard fork in any way. (Although later dishonest advocates of said hardforks tried to mislead people by using the renaming of the reference client as such.)
Antoine Poinsot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-24T09:22:50.270Z
Thanks for this MCCS. I was looking for when the discussion occurred. Thanks for clarification Darosior, Ill change my phrasing in future :-)
Aman Saggu
<bitcoin-core><history>
When did the main Bitcoin client become known as Bitcoin Core? When/Why/How did this happen?
Aman Saggu
# When did the main Bitcoin client become known as Bitcoin Core? When/Why/How did this happen?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-10-23)

Afaik at some point in 2014/2015, Bitcoin became known as 'Bitcoin Core'. I assume this was to differentiate it from other implementations of Bitcoin.

When and how did this decision come about?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, history

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: You can read more about it here: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/3203  
> **username_2**: "from other hard forked variations" => This looks confused. The name isn't related to a hard fork in any way. (Although later dishonest advocates of said hardforks tried to mislead people by using the renaming of the reference client as such.)  
> **username_0**: Thanks for this MCCS. I was looking for when the discussion occurred. Thanks for clarification Darosior, Ill change my phrasing in future :-)  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2020-10-23. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

The renaming was [merged](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pull/3408) in December 2013 with prior discussion on this GitHub [issue](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/3203). The general motivation was to distinguish between one particular implementation of the Bitcoin protocol (many refer to Bitcoin Core as the "reference implementation") versus other implementations (libbitcoin, btcd, bcoin, bitcoin-s etc) that either existed at the time or came later.

At the time most of the well known altcoins (Litecoin, Dogecoin etc) didn't hard fork the Bitcoin blockchain. They started their blockchain from a different genesis block to Bitcoin. The well known hard forks came later in 2017 with BCH, BSV etc.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks for this username_4, this is exactly what I was looking for :-)  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2020-10-23. Score: 3

As username_1 commented, <https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/3203> covers this

> Rebrand client to 'Bitcoin Core' #3203
>
> ---
>
> laanwj opened this issue on 5 Nov 2013 · 23 comments
>
> **laanwj commented on 5 Nov 2013**
>
> To remove the confusion between the Bitcoin network and the reference client implementation that we maintain in this repository, both confusingly named 'bitcoin', we'd like to rebrand the client.
>
> This has been discussed a lot before, but the following is the proposal by @gavinandresen and I agree:
>
> ```
> Bitcoin-Qt -->  btcore (full name 'Bitcoin Core')
> bitcoind --> btcored (full name 'Bitcoin Core Daemon')
> bitcoin-cli --> btcore-cli (full name 'Bitcoin Core CLI Client')
>
> ```
>
> Renaming the executables is going to break some scripts, so we'd likely want to combine it with the bitcoind CLI deprecation to make sure the migration pain is short and swift instead of drawn out.

So the primary motivation seems to have been to avoid having the one word "Bitcoin" refer to both of two very different things - the network of Bitcoin nodes and a specific software implementation (one of many).

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thanks username_1. I did not realise we had terminology to differentiate between the network of nodes and software implementations. I had been referring so far in my work to 'Bitcoin clients' and 'Bitcoin nodes' ect to differentiate. Cheers for the clarification here :-)  

---

