Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP)

A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) is a formalized proposal for making changes to Bitcoin’s software or protocol. BIPs are suggestions put forward by developers or contributors in the Bitcoin community to modify or upgrade the system, ensuring transparency and community involvement in decision-making. BIPs can range from new technical features to bug fixes, soft forks, or even governance-related improvements. Each BIP goes through a review process where the community discusses its pros and cons. For example, BIP-141 proposed the introduction of Segregated Witness (SegWit), which helped increase Bitcoin’s block size limit and improved transaction efficiency. A BIP can be accepted, rejected, or withdrawn depending on community consensus and the technical feasibility of the proposal.