What is BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)?
A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal is a standardised document describing a feature, process or change to Bitcoin. BIPs are numbered, peer-reviewed and discussed publicly; widely deployed examples include BIP-32 (HD wallets), BIP-39 (seed phrases) and BIP-141 (SegWit).
Why BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) matters
Understanding BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) is part of building a solid mental model of how Bitcoin, blockchain and Web3 systems actually work. Concepts in the Bitcoin category sit at the foundation of the broader stack — get them right and the rest is far easier.
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Related terms
- Soft Fork — A backwards-compatible protocol upgrade.
- Hard Fork — A non-backwards-compatible protocol upgrade.
- SegWit (Segregated Witness) — A 2017 Bitcoin upgrade that separated signature data.
More bitcoin terms
- Address (Bitcoin / Crypto Address) — A public destination for receiving cryptocurrency.
- Block Header — The metadata at the top of each block.
- Block Reward — New coins paid to the miner of a block.
- Difficulty — A parameter that controls how hard it is to mine a block.
- Double Spend — Attempting to spend the same coin twice.
- Halving — The scheduled 50% cut in Bitcoin's block subsidy.
- Hash Rate — The total computational power securing the network.
- Mining — Producing new blocks by performing Proof of Work.
Keep exploring
Continue with the full blockchain glossary — 136 terms in total — or read the developer blog and FAQ for deeper context.