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Bitcoin Improvement Proposal
A formal document proposing a change or standard for the Bitcoin protocol.
A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) is a formal, publicly documented proposal describing a specific change, feature, or standard for the Bitcoin protocol, submitted for community discussion and review.
Not every BIP is adopted; the process is a way of proposing, documenting, and debating changes rather than a body with unilateral authority to enforce them.
Examples
- SegWit and Taproot were each introduced and documented through formal BIPs.
- Adopting a BIP generally requires broad agreement across the Bitcoin network's participants.