Design reviews for Bitcoin infrastructure.
For systems that hold or move bitcoin on assumptions about Bitcoin’s actual behavior.
The Bitcoin Protocol Design Review
A fixed-scope, fixed-fee review of one named component of your system — a bridge’s peg mechanics, an L2’s reorg handling, a custody flow’s timelock semantics. Two weeks. You receive the component’s implicit assumptions made explicit, findings ranked by severity, recommendations anchored to the decision in front of you, and an executive summary written for the people you answer to. The engagement closes with a working readout with your engineers. Where a property matters enough, it is machine-checked — findings you can re-verify, not only read.
Bridges, sidechains and L2s, staking systems, custody — any team whose worst day is bitcoin moving when it shouldn’t.
Most teams call before mainnet, ahead of a major upgrade, after an incident of their own or a peer’s, or when a partner, investor, or underwriter has asked hard questions about the design.
Public work
Reviews and formal analyses are published as they complete.
- btc-verified — a machine-checked model of Bitcoin’s consensus-critical data structures
- Formal Vibefication — on AI authorship and verified software
Espruve is the practice of Keagan McClelland — Bitcoin protocol engineer; previously Lightning Labs, Judica, and Alpen Labs. He writes at proofofkeags.com.