BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)

A BIP documents a proposal related to Bitcoin. The public repository preserves specifications, information and processes for review and coordination. Publication does not demonstrate community consensus or imply adoption by nodes, miners or applications.

BIP-3 updates the editorial process and distinguishes Draft, Complete, Deployed and Closed statuses under its own conditions. Editors check scope and format and assign numbers; they do not decide by themselves which rules the network should execute.

Some BIPs affect consensus, while others describe application interfaces or practices. BIP-39, for example, describes mnemonic sentences for key derivation. A published specification, implementation and actual activation should be distinguished.