<p>The coinbase mentioned in BIP34 is not the company; it is referring to the first transaction in a Bitcoin block (which is special as it is allowed to bring new currency into circulation).</p>
<p>Coinbase-the-company didn't even exist when BIP34 was written (or at least, wasn't known/public). The company was named after this special transaction.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-02-21T08:42:04.757Z
2021-02-21T08:42:04.757Z
Pieter Wuille
<p>I thought that BIPs were similar to Pythons PIPs. So I was confused when I read <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0034" rel="noreferrer">BIP 34</a> mentioning coinbase explicitly. The author, Gavin Andresen, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavin-andresen-6987971/" rel="noreferrer">seems not to have a connection to coinbase</a>.</p>
<p>I thought that coinbase was just a cryptocurrency exchange, similar to Binance / Huobi / Kraken. Does coinbase have a special role? Is coinbase in some way bound to follow BIPs or did/does Gavin Andresen have influence on what coinbase does?</p>

<coinbase.com><terminology><coinbase-transaction><bip>
Why is coinbase mentioned in a BIP?
Martin Thoma
# Why is coinbase mentioned in a BIP?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-02-21)

I thought that BIPs were similar to Pythons PIPs. So I was confused when I read [BIP 34](https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/BIP_0034) mentioning coinbase explicitly. The author, Gavin Andresen, [seems not to have a connection to coinbase](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gavin-andresen-6987971/).

I thought that coinbase was just a cryptocurrency exchange, similar to Binance / Huobi / Kraken. Does coinbase have a special role? Is coinbase in some way bound to follow BIPs or did/does Gavin Andresen have influence on what coinbase does?

**Tags:** coinbase.com, terminology, coinbase-transaction, bip


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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2021-02-21. Score: 19 | Accepted answer

The coinbase mentioned in BIP34 is not the company; it is referring to the first transaction in a Bitcoin block (which is special as it is allowed to bring new currency into circulation).

Coinbase-the-company didn't even exist when BIP34 was written (or at least, wasn't known/public). The company was named after this special transaction.


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