BIP
Also: Bitcoin Improvement Proposal
philosophy · intermediate
A numbered design document describing a proposed change or convention for Bitcoin.
BIPs are the de facto specification mechanism for Bitcoin since BIP-1 was authored in 2011. Notable examples: BIP-32 (HD wallets), BIP-39 (seed phrases), BIP-44/49/84/86 (derivation paths), BIP-141 (SegWit), BIP-340–342 (Taproot/Schnorr), BIP-322 (message signing). A BIP is a proposal, not a mandate — it becomes real only when nodes choose to enforce it.
BIPs come in three flavors. *Standards Track* affect interoperability (most consensus changes, wallet formats, P2P protocol). *Informational* document design notes without prescribing. *Process* describe how Bitcoin development itself works. BIP statuses progress from Draft → Proposed → Final (or Active, for process BIPs), with Replaced and Withdrawn for the ones that don't make it.
Importantly, the BIPs editor doesn't decide what Bitcoin is. The BIP system is a coordination tool — a place to write things down precisely. Whether a BIP becomes binding depends on whether nodes run software that enforces it, which is downstream of community review, implementation, and (for consensus changes) some form of activation process.