diff --git a/lib/btc/errors.js b/lib/btc/errors.js
index 7ef0ec6e..7426180e 100644
--- a/lib/btc/errors.js
+++ b/lib/btc/errors.js
@@ -39,25 +39,21 @@ function VerifyError(msg, code, reason, score) {
 
   this.type = 'VerifyError';
 
+  assert(typeof code === 'string');
+  asssert(typeof reason === 'string');
+  assert(score >= 0);
+
   this.hash = msg.hash();
-  this.height = msg.height;
-
-  if (msg.getCoinbaseHeight && this.height === -1)
-    this.height = msg.getCoinbaseHeight();
-
-  if (score == null)
-    score = -1;
+  this.malleated = false;
 
   this.code = code;
-  this.reason = score === -1 ? null : reason;
+  this.reason = reason;
   this.score = score;
-  this.malleated = false;
-  this.message = 'Verification failure: '
-    + reason
-    + ' (code=' + code
-    + ', score=' + score
-    + ', height=' + this.height
-    + ', hash=' + util.revHex(this.hash.toString('hex')) + ')';
+
+  this.message = 'Verification failure: ' + reason
+    + ' (code=' + code + ', score=' + score
+    + ', hash=' + util.revHex(this.hash.toString('hex'))
+    + ')';
 }
 
 util.inherits(VerifyError, Error);