diff --git a/txscript/README.md b/txscript/README.md
index 004c586d..f0abb518 100644
--- a/txscript/README.md
+++ b/txscript/README.md
@@ -37,6 +37,10 @@ $ go get -u github.com/btcsuite/btcd/txscript
 * [Manually Signing a Transaction Output](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/btcsuite/btcd/txscript#example-SignTxOutput)  
   Demonstrates manually creating and signing a redeem transaction.
 
+* [Counting Opcodes in Scripts](http://godoc.org/github.com/decred/dcrd/txscript#example-ScriptTokenizer)  
+  Demonstrates creating a script tokenizer instance and using it to count the
+  number of opcodes a script contains.
+
 ## GPG Verification Key
 
 All official release tags are signed by Conformal so users can ensure the code
diff --git a/txscript/bench_test.go b/txscript/bench_test.go
index 51f9aeab..673d1cc3 100644
--- a/txscript/bench_test.go
+++ b/txscript/bench_test.go
@@ -96,17 +96,18 @@ func BenchmarkScriptParsing(b *testing.B) {
 		b.Fatalf("failed to create benchmark script: %v", err)
 	}
 
+	const scriptVersion = 0
 	b.ResetTimer()
 	b.ReportAllocs()
 	for i := 0; i < b.N; i++ {
-		pops, err := parseScript(script)
-		if err != nil {
-			b.Fatalf("failed to parse script: %v", err)
+		tokenizer := MakeScriptTokenizer(scriptVersion, script)
+		for tokenizer.Next() {
+			_ = tokenizer.Opcode()
+			_ = tokenizer.Data()
+			_ = tokenizer.ByteIndex()
 		}
-
-		for _, pop := range pops {
-			_ = pop.opcode
-			_ = pop.data
+		if err := tokenizer.Err(); err != nil {
+			b.Fatalf("failed to parse script: %v", err)
 		}
 	}
 }
diff --git a/txscript/error.go b/txscript/error.go
index a61d0272..f42b893e 100644
--- a/txscript/error.go
+++ b/txscript/error.go
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 // Copyright (c) 2013-2017 The btcsuite developers
+// Copyright (c) 2015-2019 The Decred developers
 // Use of this source code is governed by an ISC
 // license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
 
@@ -47,6 +48,10 @@ const (
 	// the provided data exceeds MaxDataCarrierSize.
 	ErrTooMuchNullData
 
+	// ErrUnsupportedScriptVersion is returned when an unsupported script
+	// version is passed to a function which deals with script analysis.
+	ErrUnsupportedScriptVersion
+
 	// ------------------------------------------
 	// Failures related to final execution state.
 	// ------------------------------------------
@@ -352,6 +357,7 @@ var errorCodeStrings = map[ErrorCode]string{
 	ErrNotMultisigScript:                  "ErrNotMultisigScript",
 	ErrTooManyRequiredSigs:                "ErrTooManyRequiredSigs",
 	ErrTooMuchNullData:                    "ErrTooMuchNullData",
+	ErrUnsupportedScriptVersion:           "ErrUnsupportedScriptVersion",
 	ErrEarlyReturn:                        "ErrEarlyReturn",
 	ErrEmptyStack:                         "ErrEmptyStack",
 	ErrEvalFalse:                          "ErrEvalFalse",
diff --git a/txscript/error_test.go b/txscript/error_test.go
index ebac85fd..abfa1565 100644
--- a/txscript/error_test.go
+++ b/txscript/error_test.go
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 // Copyright (c) 2017 The btcsuite developers
+// Copyright (c) 2015-2019 The Decred developers
 // Use of this source code is governed by an ISC
 // license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
 
@@ -22,6 +23,7 @@ func TestErrorCodeStringer(t *testing.T) {
 		{ErrUnsupportedAddress, "ErrUnsupportedAddress"},
 		{ErrTooManyRequiredSigs, "ErrTooManyRequiredSigs"},
 		{ErrTooMuchNullData, "ErrTooMuchNullData"},
+		{ErrUnsupportedScriptVersion, "ErrUnsupportedScriptVersion"},
 		{ErrNotMultisigScript, "ErrNotMultisigScript"},
 		{ErrEarlyReturn, "ErrEarlyReturn"},
 		{ErrEmptyStack, "ErrEmptyStack"},
diff --git a/txscript/example_test.go b/txscript/example_test.go
index 7bf2b3f0..6e17341c 100644
--- a/txscript/example_test.go
+++ b/txscript/example_test.go
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 // Copyright (c) 2014-2016 The btcsuite developers
+// Copyright (c) 2015-2019 The Decred developers
 // Use of this source code is governed by an ISC
 // license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
 
@@ -180,3 +181,34 @@ func ExampleSignTxOutput() {
 	// Output:
 	// Transaction successfully signed
 }
+
+// This example demonstrates creating a script tokenizer instance and using it
+// to count the number of opcodes a script contains.
+func ExampleScriptTokenizer() {
+	// Create a script to use in the example.  Ordinarily this would come from
+	// some other source.
+	hash160 := btcutil.Hash160([]byte("example"))
+	script, err := txscript.NewScriptBuilder().AddOp(txscript.OP_DUP).
+		AddOp(txscript.OP_HASH160).AddData(hash160).
+		AddOp(txscript.OP_EQUALVERIFY).AddOp(txscript.OP_CHECKSIG).Script()
+	if err != nil {
+		fmt.Printf("failed to build script: %v\n", err)
+		return
+	}
+
+	// Create a tokenizer to iterate the script and count the number of opcodes.
+	const scriptVersion = 0
+	var numOpcodes int
+	tokenizer := txscript.MakeScriptTokenizer(scriptVersion, script)
+	for tokenizer.Next() {
+		numOpcodes++
+	}
+	if tokenizer.Err() != nil {
+		fmt.Printf("script failed to parse: %v\n", err)
+	} else {
+		fmt.Printf("script contains %d opcode(s)\n", numOpcodes)
+	}
+
+	// Output:
+	// script contains 5 opcode(s)
+}
diff --git a/txscript/tokenizer.go b/txscript/tokenizer.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..72e00f07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/txscript/tokenizer.go
@@ -0,0 +1,186 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2019 The Decred developers
+// Use of this source code is governed by an ISC
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package txscript
+
+import (
+	"encoding/binary"
+	"fmt"
+)
+
+// opcodeArrayRef is used to break initialization cycles.
+var opcodeArrayRef *[256]opcode
+
+func init() {
+	opcodeArrayRef = &opcodeArray
+}
+
+// ScriptTokenizer provides a facility for easily and efficiently tokenizing
+// transaction scripts without creating allocations.  Each successive opcode is
+// parsed with the Next function, which returns false when iteration is
+// complete, either due to successfully tokenizing the entire script or
+// encountering a parse error.  In the case of failure, the Err function may be
+// used to obtain the specific parse error.
+//
+// Upon successfully parsing an opcode, the opcode and data associated with it
+// may be obtained via the Opcode and Data functions, respectively.
+//
+// The ByteIndex function may be used to obtain the tokenizer's current offset
+// into the raw script.
+type ScriptTokenizer struct {
+	script  []byte
+	version uint16
+	offset  int32
+	op      *opcode
+	data    []byte
+	err     error
+}
+
+// Done returns true when either all opcodes have been exhausted or a parse
+// failure was encountered and therefore the state has an associated error.
+func (t *ScriptTokenizer) Done() bool {
+	return t.err != nil || t.offset >= int32(len(t.script))
+}
+
+// Next attempts to parse the next opcode and returns whether or not it was
+// successful.  It will not be successful if invoked when already at the end of
+// the script, a parse failure is encountered, or an associated error already
+// exists due to a previous parse failure.
+//
+// In the case of a true return, the parsed opcode and data can be obtained with
+// the associated functions and the offset into the script will either point to
+// the next opcode or the end of the script if the final opcode was parsed.
+//
+// In the case of a false return, the parsed opcode and data will be the last
+// successfully parsed values (if any) and the offset into the script will
+// either point to the failing opcode or the end of the script if the function
+// was invoked when already at the end of the script.
+//
+// Invoking this function when already at the end of the script is not
+// considered an error and will simply return false.
+func (t *ScriptTokenizer) Next() bool {
+	if t.Done() {
+		return false
+	}
+
+	op := &opcodeArrayRef[t.script[t.offset]]
+	switch {
+	// No additional data.  Note that some of the opcodes, notably OP_1NEGATE,
+	// OP_0, and OP_[1-16] represent the data themselves.
+	case op.length == 1:
+		t.offset++
+		t.op = op
+		t.data = nil
+		return true
+
+	// Data pushes of specific lengths -- OP_DATA_[1-75].
+	case op.length > 1:
+		script := t.script[t.offset:]
+		if len(script) < op.length {
+			str := fmt.Sprintf("opcode %s requires %d bytes, but script only "+
+				"has %d remaining", op.name, op.length, len(script))
+			t.err = scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, str)
+			return false
+		}
+
+		// Move the offset forward and set the opcode and data accordingly.
+		t.offset += int32(op.length)
+		t.op = op
+		t.data = script[1:op.length]
+		return true
+
+	// Data pushes with parsed lengths -- OP_PUSHDATA{1,2,4}.
+	case op.length < 0:
+		script := t.script[t.offset+1:]
+		if len(script) < -op.length {
+			str := fmt.Sprintf("opcode %s requires %d bytes, but script only "+
+				"has %d remaining", op.name, -op.length, len(script))
+			t.err = scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, str)
+			return false
+		}
+
+		// Next -length bytes are little endian length of data.
+		var dataLen int32
+		switch op.length {
+		case -1:
+			dataLen = int32(script[0])
+		case -2:
+			dataLen = int32(binary.LittleEndian.Uint16(script[:2]))
+		case -4:
+			dataLen = int32(binary.LittleEndian.Uint32(script[:4]))
+		default:
+			// In practice it should be impossible to hit this
+			// check as each op code is predefined, and only uses
+			// the specified lengths.
+			str := fmt.Sprintf("invalid opcode length %d", op.length)
+			t.err = scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, str)
+			return false
+		}
+
+		// Move to the beginning of the data.
+		script = script[-op.length:]
+
+		// Disallow entries that do not fit script or were sign extended.
+		if dataLen > int32(len(script)) || dataLen < 0 {
+			str := fmt.Sprintf("opcode %s pushes %d bytes, but script only "+
+				"has %d remaining", op.name, dataLen, len(script))
+			t.err = scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, str)
+			return false
+		}
+
+		// Move the offset forward and set the opcode and data accordingly.
+		t.offset += 1 + int32(-op.length) + dataLen
+		t.op = op
+		t.data = script[:dataLen]
+		return true
+	}
+
+	// The only remaining case is an opcode with length zero which is
+	// impossible.
+	panic("unreachable")
+}
+
+// Script returns the full script associated with the tokenizer.
+func (t *ScriptTokenizer) Script() []byte {
+	return t.script
+}
+
+// ByteIndex returns the current offset into the full script that will be parsed
+// next and therefore also implies everything before it has already been parsed.
+func (t *ScriptTokenizer) ByteIndex() int32 {
+	return t.offset
+}
+
+// Opcode returns the current opcode associated with the tokenizer.
+func (t *ScriptTokenizer) Opcode() byte {
+	return t.op.value
+}
+
+// Data returns the data associated with the most recently successfully parsed
+// opcode.
+func (t *ScriptTokenizer) Data() []byte {
+	return t.data
+}
+
+// Err returns any errors currently associated with the tokenizer.  This will
+// only be non-nil in the case a parsing error was encountered.
+func (t *ScriptTokenizer) Err() error {
+	return t.err
+}
+
+// MakeScriptTokenizer returns a new instance of a script tokenizer.  Passing
+// an unsupported script version will result in the returned tokenizer
+// immediately having an err set accordingly.
+//
+// See the docs for ScriptTokenizer for more details.
+func MakeScriptTokenizer(scriptVersion uint16, script []byte) ScriptTokenizer {
+	// Only version 0 scripts are currently supported.
+	var err error
+	if scriptVersion != 0 {
+		str := fmt.Sprintf("script version %d is not supported", scriptVersion)
+		err = scriptError(ErrUnsupportedScriptVersion, str)
+
+	}
+	return ScriptTokenizer{version: scriptVersion, script: script, err: err}
+}
diff --git a/txscript/tokenizer_test.go b/txscript/tokenizer_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fd008bfc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/txscript/tokenizer_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,259 @@
+// Copyright (c) 2019 The Decred developers
+// Use of this source code is governed by an ISC
+// license that can be found in the LICENSE file.
+
+package txscript
+
+import (
+	"bytes"
+	"fmt"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+// TestScriptTokenizer ensures a wide variety of behavior provided by the script
+// tokenizer performs as expected.
+func TestScriptTokenizer(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Skip()
+
+	type expectedResult struct {
+		op    byte   // expected parsed opcode
+		data  []byte // expected parsed data
+		index int32  // expected index into raw script after parsing token
+	}
+
+	type tokenizerTest struct {
+		name     string           // test description
+		script   []byte           // the script to tokenize
+		expected []expectedResult // the expected info after parsing each token
+		finalIdx int32            // the expected final byte index
+		err      error            // expected error
+	}
+
+	// Add both positive and negative tests for OP_DATA_1 through OP_DATA_75.
+	const numTestsHint = 100 // Make prealloc linter happy.
+	tests := make([]tokenizerTest, 0, numTestsHint)
+	for op := byte(OP_DATA_1); op < OP_DATA_75; op++ {
+		data := bytes.Repeat([]byte{0x01}, int(op))
+		tests = append(tests, tokenizerTest{
+			name:     fmt.Sprintf("OP_DATA_%d", op),
+			script:   append([]byte{op}, data...),
+			expected: []expectedResult{{op, data, 1 + int32(op)}},
+			finalIdx: 1 + int32(op),
+			err:      nil,
+		})
+
+		// Create test that provides one less byte than the data push requires.
+		tests = append(tests, tokenizerTest{
+			name:     fmt.Sprintf("short OP_DATA_%d", op),
+			script:   append([]byte{op}, data[1:]...),
+			expected: nil,
+			finalIdx: 0,
+			err:      scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, ""),
+		})
+	}
+
+	// Add both positive and negative tests for OP_PUSHDATA{1,2,4}.
+	data := mustParseShortForm("0x01{76}")
+	tests = append(tests, []tokenizerTest{{
+		name:     "OP_PUSHDATA1",
+		script:   mustParseShortForm("OP_PUSHDATA1 0x4c 0x01{76}"),
+		expected: []expectedResult{{OP_PUSHDATA1, data, 2 + int32(len(data))}},
+		finalIdx: 2 + int32(len(data)),
+		err:      nil,
+	}, {
+		name:     "OP_PUSHDATA1 no data length",
+		script:   mustParseShortForm("OP_PUSHDATA1"),
+		expected: nil,
+		finalIdx: 0,
+		err:      scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, ""),
+	}, {
+		name:     "OP_PUSHDATA1 short data by 1 byte",
+		script:   mustParseShortForm("OP_PUSHDATA1 0x4c 0x01{75}"),
+		expected: nil,
+		finalIdx: 0,
+		err:      scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, ""),
+	}, {
+		name:     "OP_PUSHDATA2",
+		script:   mustParseShortForm("OP_PUSHDATA2 0x4c00 0x01{76}"),
+		expected: []expectedResult{{OP_PUSHDATA2, data, 3 + int32(len(data))}},
+		finalIdx: 3 + int32(len(data)),
+		err:      nil,
+	}, {
+		name:     "OP_PUSHDATA2 no data length",
+		script:   mustParseShortForm("OP_PUSHDATA2"),
+		expected: nil,
+		finalIdx: 0,
+		err:      scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, ""),
+	}, {
+		name:     "OP_PUSHDATA2 short data by 1 byte",
+		script:   mustParseShortForm("OP_PUSHDATA2 0x4c00 0x01{75}"),
+		expected: nil,
+		finalIdx: 0,
+		err:      scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, ""),
+	}, {
+		name:     "OP_PUSHDATA4",
+		script:   mustParseShortForm("OP_PUSHDATA4 0x4c000000 0x01{76}"),
+		expected: []expectedResult{{OP_PUSHDATA4, data, 5 + int32(len(data))}},
+		finalIdx: 5 + int32(len(data)),
+		err:      nil,
+	}, {
+		name:     "OP_PUSHDATA4 no data length",
+		script:   mustParseShortForm("OP_PUSHDATA4"),
+		expected: nil,
+		finalIdx: 0,
+		err:      scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, ""),
+	}, {
+		name:     "OP_PUSHDATA4 short data by 1 byte",
+		script:   mustParseShortForm("OP_PUSHDATA4 0x4c000000 0x01{75}"),
+		expected: nil,
+		finalIdx: 0,
+		err:      scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, ""),
+	}}...)
+
+	// Add tests for OP_0, and OP_1 through OP_16 (small integers/true/false).
+	opcodes := []byte{OP_0}
+	for op := byte(OP_1); op < OP_16; op++ {
+		opcodes = append(opcodes, op)
+	}
+	for _, op := range opcodes {
+		tests = append(tests, tokenizerTest{
+			name:     fmt.Sprintf("OP_%d", op),
+			script:   []byte{op},
+			expected: []expectedResult{{op, nil, 1}},
+			finalIdx: 1,
+			err:      nil,
+		})
+	}
+
+	// Add various positive and negative tests for multi-opcode scripts.
+	tests = append(tests, []tokenizerTest{{
+		name:   "pay-to-pubkey-hash",
+		script: mustParseShortForm("DUP HASH160 DATA_20 0x01{20} EQUAL CHECKSIG"),
+		expected: []expectedResult{
+			{OP_DUP, nil, 1}, {OP_HASH160, nil, 2},
+			{OP_DATA_20, mustParseShortForm("0x01{20}"), 23},
+			{OP_EQUAL, nil, 24}, {OP_CHECKSIG, nil, 25},
+		},
+		finalIdx: 25,
+		err:      nil,
+	}, {
+		name:   "almost pay-to-pubkey-hash (short data)",
+		script: mustParseShortForm("DUP HASH160 DATA_20 0x01{17} EQUAL CHECKSIG"),
+		expected: []expectedResult{
+			{OP_DUP, nil, 1}, {OP_HASH160, nil, 2},
+		},
+		finalIdx: 2,
+		err:      scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, ""),
+	}, {
+		name:   "almost pay-to-pubkey-hash (overlapped data)",
+		script: mustParseShortForm("DUP HASH160 DATA_20 0x01{19} EQUAL CHECKSIG"),
+		expected: []expectedResult{
+			{OP_DUP, nil, 1}, {OP_HASH160, nil, 2},
+			{OP_DATA_20, mustParseShortForm("0x01{19} EQUAL"), 23},
+			{OP_CHECKSIG, nil, 24},
+		},
+		finalIdx: 24,
+		err:      nil,
+	}, {
+		name:   "pay-to-script-hash",
+		script: mustParseShortForm("HASH160 DATA_20 0x01{20} EQUAL"),
+		expected: []expectedResult{
+			{OP_HASH160, nil, 1},
+			{OP_DATA_20, mustParseShortForm("0x01{20}"), 22},
+			{OP_EQUAL, nil, 23},
+		},
+		finalIdx: 23,
+		err:      nil,
+	}, {
+		name:   "almost pay-to-script-hash (short data)",
+		script: mustParseShortForm("HASH160 DATA_20 0x01{18} EQUAL"),
+		expected: []expectedResult{
+			{OP_HASH160, nil, 1},
+		},
+		finalIdx: 1,
+		err:      scriptError(ErrMalformedPush, ""),
+	}, {
+		name:   "almost pay-to-script-hash (overlapped data)",
+		script: mustParseShortForm("HASH160 DATA_20 0x01{19} EQUAL"),
+		expected: []expectedResult{
+			{OP_HASH160, nil, 1},
+			{OP_DATA_20, mustParseShortForm("0x01{19} EQUAL"), 22},
+		},
+		finalIdx: 22,
+		err:      nil,
+	}}...)
+
+	const scriptVersion = 0
+	for _, test := range tests {
+		tokenizer := MakeScriptTokenizer(scriptVersion, test.script)
+		var opcodeNum int
+		for tokenizer.Next() {
+			// Ensure Next never returns true when there is an error set.
+			if err := tokenizer.Err(); err != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("%q: Next returned true when tokenizer has err: %v",
+					test.name, err)
+			}
+
+			// Ensure the test data expects a token to be parsed.
+			op := tokenizer.Opcode()
+			data := tokenizer.Data()
+			if opcodeNum >= len(test.expected) {
+				t.Fatalf("%q: unexpected token '%d' (data: '%x')", test.name,
+					op, data)
+			}
+			expected := &test.expected[opcodeNum]
+
+			// Ensure the opcode and data are the expected values.
+			if op != expected.op {
+				t.Fatalf("%q: unexpected opcode -- got %v, want %v", test.name,
+					op, expected.op)
+			}
+			if !bytes.Equal(data, expected.data) {
+				t.Fatalf("%q: unexpected data -- got %x, want %x", test.name,
+					data, expected.data)
+			}
+
+			tokenizerIdx := tokenizer.ByteIndex()
+			if tokenizerIdx != expected.index {
+				t.Fatalf("%q: unexpected byte index -- got %d, want %d",
+					test.name, tokenizerIdx, expected.index)
+			}
+
+			opcodeNum++
+		}
+
+		// Ensure the tokenizer claims it is done.  This should be the case
+		// regardless of whether or not there was a parse error.
+		if !tokenizer.Done() {
+			t.Fatalf("%q: tokenizer claims it is not done", test.name)
+		}
+
+		// Ensure the error is as expected.
+		if test.err == nil && tokenizer.Err() != nil {
+			t.Fatalf("%q: unexpected tokenizer err -- got %v, want nil",
+				test.name, tokenizer.Err())
+		} else if test.err != nil {
+			if !IsErrorCode(tokenizer.Err(), test.err.(Error).ErrorCode) {
+				t.Fatalf("%q: unexpected tokenizer err -- got %v, want %v",
+					test.name, tokenizer.Err(), test.err.(Error).ErrorCode)
+			}
+		}
+
+		// Ensure the final index is the expected value.
+		tokenizerIdx := tokenizer.ByteIndex()
+		if tokenizerIdx != test.finalIdx {
+			t.Fatalf("%q: unexpected final byte index -- got %d, want %d",
+				test.name, tokenizerIdx, test.finalIdx)
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// TestScriptTokenizerUnsupportedVersion ensures the tokenizer fails immediately
+// with an unsupported script version.
+func TestScriptTokenizerUnsupportedVersion(t *testing.T) {
+	const scriptVersion = 65535
+	tokenizer := MakeScriptTokenizer(scriptVersion, nil)
+	if !IsErrorCode(tokenizer.Err(), ErrUnsupportedScriptVersion) {
+		t.Fatalf("script tokenizer did not error with unsupported version")
+	}
+}