Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP)

BIPs are how ideas for Bitcoin are written down, numbered and discussed. Anyone can draft one, describing the motivation, the technical specification and how it stays compatible. Editors assign numbers and track status, but they do not decide what the network adopts. Some BIPs change consensus rules, such as SegWit (BIP-141) and Taproot (BIP-341); others set conventions that wallets and services follow.

Several of the most important standards in everyday crypto are BIPs: BIP-32 defines hierarchical deterministic wallets, BIP-39 the seed phrase word list, BIP-44, 84 and 86 the derivation paths for different address types, and BIP-21 the payment URI format behind QR codes. Their influence goes far beyond Bitcoin, since many other chains reuse them.

Having a BIP number does not mean a proposal is accepted or will ever be activated. Consensus changes need implementation in node software and broad support from users, miners and businesses, which can take years, as covenants proposals show. Activation methods themselves, such as miner signalling or user-activated soft forks, have been sources of conflict.