diff --git a/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md b/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
index 03545dbb0..d6de13c9d 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
@@ -24,5 +24,9 @@ Friendly reminder, we have a [bug bounty program](https://hackerone.com/tendermi
 
 - [abci/server] [\#4719](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/pull/4719) Print panic & stack trace to STDERR if logger is not set (@melekes)
 - [types] [\#4638](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/pull/4638) Implement `Header#ValidateBasic` (@alexanderbez)
+- [buildsystem] [\#4378](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/pull/4738) Replace build_c and install_c with TENDERMINT_BUILD_OPTIONS parsing. The following options are available:
+  - nostrip: don't strip debugging symbols nor DWARF tables.
+  - cleveldb: use cleveldb as db backend instead of goleveldb.
+  - race: pass -race to go build and enable data race detection.
 
 ### BUG FIXES:
diff --git a/DOCKER/Dockerfile.build_c-amazonlinux b/DOCKER/Dockerfile.build_c-amazonlinux
index 64babe3ae..05bc7e265 100644
--- a/DOCKER/Dockerfile.build_c-amazonlinux
+++ b/DOCKER/Dockerfile.build_c-amazonlinux
@@ -24,5 +24,5 @@ ENV GOPATH=/go/src
 RUN mkdir -p /tendermint
 WORKDIR /tendermint
 
-CMD ["/usr/bin/make", "build_c"]
+CMD ["/usr/bin/make", "build", "TENDERMINT_BUILD_OPTIONS=cleveldb"]
 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index eb9626bf4..c7a389476 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,11 +1,33 @@
 PACKAGES=$(shell go list ./...)
 OUTPUT?=build/tendermint
 
-BUILD_TAGS?='tendermint'
-LD_FLAGS = -X github.com/tendermint/tendermint/version.GitCommit=`git rev-parse --short=8 HEAD` -s -w
+BUILD_TAGS?=tendermint
+LD_FLAGS = -X github.com/tendermint/tendermint/version.GitCommit=`git rev-parse --short=8 HEAD`
 BUILD_FLAGS = -mod=readonly -ldflags "$(LD_FLAGS)"
 HTTPS_GIT := https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint.git
 DOCKER_BUF := docker run -v $(shell pwd):/workspace --workdir /workspace bufbuild/buf
+CGO_ENABLED ?= 0
+
+# handle nostrip
+ifeq (,$(findstring nostrip,$(TENDERMINT_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
+  BUILD_FLAGS += -trimpath
+  LD_FLAGS += -s -w
+endif
+
+# handle race
+ifeq (race,$(findstring race,$(TENDERMINT_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
+  CGO_ENABLED=1
+  BUILD_FLAGS += -race
+endif
+
+# handle cleveldb
+ifeq (cleveldb,$(findstring cleveldb,$(TENDERMINT_BUILD_OPTIONS)))
+  CGO_ENABLED=1
+  BUILD_TAGS += cleveldb
+endif
+
+# allow users to pass additional flags via the conventional LDFLAGS variable
+LD_FLAGS += $(LDFLAGS)
 
 all: check build test install
 .PHONY: all
@@ -19,25 +41,13 @@ include tests.mk
 ###############################################################################
 
 build:
-	CGO_ENABLED=0 go build $(BUILD_FLAGS) -tags $(BUILD_TAGS) -o $(OUTPUT) ./cmd/tendermint/
+	CGO_ENABLED=$(CGO_ENABLED) go build $(BUILD_FLAGS) -tags '$(BUILD_TAGS)' -o $(OUTPUT) ./cmd/tendermint/
 .PHONY: build
 
-build_c:
-	CGO_ENABLED=1 go build $(BUILD_FLAGS) -tags "$(BUILD_TAGS) cleveldb" -o $(OUTPUT) ./cmd/tendermint/
-.PHONY: build_c
-
-build_race:
-	CGO_ENABLED=1 go build -race $(BUILD_FLAGS) -tags $(BUILD_TAGS) -o $(OUTPUT) ./cmd/tendermint
-.PHONY: build_race
-
 install:
-	CGO_ENABLED=0 go install $(BUILD_FLAGS) -tags $(BUILD_TAGS) ./cmd/tendermint
+	CGO_ENABLED=$(CGO_ENABLED) go install $(BUILD_FLAGS) -tags $(BUILD_TAGS) ./cmd/tendermint
 .PHONY: install
 
-install_c:
-	CGO_ENABLED=1 go install $(BUILD_FLAGS) -tags "$(BUILD_TAGS) cleveldb" ./cmd/tendermint
-.PHONY: install_c
-
 ###############################################################################
 ###                                Protobuf                                 ###
 ###############################################################################
@@ -197,9 +207,9 @@ build-docker-localnode:
 	@cd networks/local && make
 .PHONY: build-docker-localnode
 
-# Runs `make build_c` from within an Amazon Linux (v2)-based Docker build
-# container in order to build an Amazon Linux-compatible binary. Produces a
-# compatible binary at ./build/tendermint
+# Runs `make build TENDERMINT_BUILD_OPTIONS=cleveldb` from within an Amazon
+# Linux (v2)-based Docker build container in order to build an Amazon
+# Linux-compatible binary. Produces a compatible binary at ./build/tendermint
 build_c-amazonlinux:
 	$(MAKE) -C ./DOCKER build_amazonlinux_buildimage
 	docker run --rm -it -v `pwd`:/tendermint tendermint/tendermint:build_c-amazonlinux
diff --git a/docs/introduction/install.md b/docs/introduction/install.md
index b94230cc1..878f6d043 100644
--- a/docs/introduction/install.md
+++ b/docs/introduction/install.md
@@ -119,13 +119,13 @@ db_backend = "cleveldb"
 To install Tendermint, run:
 
 ```
-CGO_LDFLAGS="-lsnappy" make install_c
+CGO_LDFLAGS="-lsnappy" make install TENDERMINT_BUILD_OPTIONS=cleveldb
 ```
 
 or run:
 
 ```
-CGO_LDFLAGS="-lsnappy" make build_c
+CGO_LDFLAGS="-lsnappy" make build TENDERMINT_BUILD_OPTIONS=cleveldb
 ```
 
 which puts the binary in `./build`.
diff --git a/docs/tendermint-core/running-in-production.md b/docs/tendermint-core/running-in-production.md
index d386308de..20eb8910d 100644
--- a/docs/tendermint-core/running-in-production.md
+++ b/docs/tendermint-core/running-in-production.md
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ By default, Tendermint uses the `syndtr/goleveldb` package for its in-process
 key-value database. Unfortunately, this implementation of LevelDB seems to suffer under heavy load (see
 [#226](https://github.com/syndtr/goleveldb/issues/226)). It may be best to
 install the real C-implementation of LevelDB and compile Tendermint to use
-that using `make build_c`. See the [install instructions](../introduction/install.md) for details.
+that using `make build TENDERMINT_BUILD_OPTIONS=cleveldb`. See the [install instructions](../introduction/install.md) for details.
 
 Tendermint keeps multiple distinct databases in the `$TMROOT/data`: