diff --git a/bitcoin/Cargo.toml b/bitcoin/Cargo.toml
index adbfe092..995fbe53 100644
--- a/bitcoin/Cargo.toml
+++ b/bitcoin/Cargo.toml
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ rand = ["secp256k1/rand-std"]
 serde = ["actual-serde", "bitcoin_hashes/serde", "secp256k1/serde"]
 secp-lowmemory = ["secp256k1/lowmemory"]
 secp-recovery = ["secp256k1/recovery"]
+bitcoinconsensus-std = ["bitcoinconsensus/std", "std"]
 
 # At least one of std, no-std must be enabled.
 #
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@ secp256k1 = { version = "0.24.0", default-features = false, features = ["bitcoin
 core2 = { version = "0.3.0", optional = true, default-features = false }
 
 base64 = { version = "0.13.0", optional = true }
-bitcoinconsensus = { version = "0.20.2-0.5.0", optional = true }
+bitcoinconsensus = { version = "0.20.2-0.5.0", optional = true, default-features = false }
 # Do NOT use this as a feature! Use the `serde` feature instead.
 actual-serde = { package = "serde", version = "1.0.103", default-features = false, features = [ "derive", "alloc" ], optional = true }
 hashbrown = { version = "0.8", optional = true }
diff --git a/bitcoin/src/blockdata/script.rs b/bitcoin/src/blockdata/script.rs
index 8cb8c76f..11beef98 100644
--- a/bitcoin/src/blockdata/script.rs
+++ b/bitcoin/src/blockdata/script.rs
@@ -170,6 +170,46 @@ pub enum Error {
     Serialization
 }
 
+// If bitcoinonsensus-std is off but bitcoinconsensus is present we patch the error type to
+// implement `std::error::Error`.
+#[cfg(all(feature = "std", feature = "bitcoinconsensus", not(feature = "bitcoinconsensus-std")))]
+mod bitcoinconsensus_hack {
+    use core::fmt;
+
+    #[repr(transparent)]
+    pub(crate) struct Error(bitcoinconsensus::Error);
+
+    impl fmt::Debug for Error {
+        fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
+            fmt::Debug::fmt(&self.0, f)
+        }
+    }
+
+    impl fmt::Display for Error {
+        fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
+            fmt::Display::fmt(&self.0, f)
+        }
+    }
+
+    // bitcoinconsensus::Error has no sources at this time
+    impl std::error::Error for Error {}
+
+    pub(crate) fn wrap_error(error: &bitcoinconsensus::Error) -> &Error {
+        // Unfortunately, we cannot have the reference inside `Error` struct because of the 'static
+        // bound on `source` return type, so we have to use unsafe to overcome the limitation.
+        // SAFETY: the type is repr(transparent) and the lifetimes match
+        unsafe {
+            &*(error as *const _ as *const Error)
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(not(all(feature = "std", feature = "bitcoinconsensus", not(feature = "bitcoinconsensus-std"))))]
+mod bitcoinconsensus_hack {
+    #[allow(unused_imports)] // conditionally used
+    pub(crate) use core::convert::identity as wrap_error;
+}
+
 impl fmt::Display for Error {
     fn fmt(&self, f: &mut fmt::Formatter) -> fmt::Result {
         match *self {
@@ -177,7 +217,7 @@ impl fmt::Display for Error {
             Error::EarlyEndOfScript => f.write_str("unexpected end of script"),
             Error::NumericOverflow => f.write_str("numeric overflow (number on stack larger than 4 bytes)"),
             #[cfg(feature = "bitcoinconsensus")]
-            Error::BitcoinConsensus(ref e) => write_err!(f, "bitcoinconsensus verification failed"; e),
+            Error::BitcoinConsensus(ref e) => write_err!(f, "bitcoinconsensus verification failed"; bitcoinconsensus_hack::wrap_error(e)),
             Error::UnknownSpentOutput(ref point) => write!(f, "unknown spent output: {}", point),
             Error::Serialization => f.write_str("can not serialize the spending transaction in Transaction::verify()"),
         }
@@ -197,7 +237,7 @@ impl std::error::Error for Error {
             | UnknownSpentOutput(_)
             | Serialization => None,
             #[cfg(feature = "bitcoinconsensus")]
-            BitcoinConsensus(ref e) => Some(e),
+            BitcoinConsensus(ref e) => Some(bitcoinconsensus_hack::wrap_error(e)),
         }
     }
 }
diff --git a/bitcoin/src/lib.rs b/bitcoin/src/lib.rs
index 2064e5b4..bbbb378d 100644
--- a/bitcoin/src/lib.rs
+++ b/bitcoin/src/lib.rs
@@ -26,14 +26,17 @@
 //! * `no-std` - enables additional features required for this crate to be usable
 //!              without std. Does **not** disable `std`. Depends on `hashbrown`
 //!              and `core2`.
-//!
+//! * `bitcoinconsensus-std` - enables `std` in `bitcoinconsensus` and communicates it
+//!                            to this crate so it knows how to implement
+//!                            `std::error::Error`. At this time there's a hack to
+//!                            achieve the same without this feature but it could
+//!                            happen the implementations diverge one day.
 
 #![cfg_attr(all(not(feature = "std"), not(test)), no_std)]
 // Experimental features we need.
 #![cfg_attr(bench, feature(test))]
 #![cfg_attr(docsrs, feature(doc_cfg))]
 // Coding conventions
-#![forbid(unsafe_code)]
 #![deny(non_upper_case_globals)]
 #![deny(non_camel_case_types)]
 #![deny(non_snake_case)]