BIP

Bitcoin Improvement Proposal — the standard format for proposing changes to Bitcoin.

A BIP — Bitcoin Improvement Proposal — is a document proposing a change to Bitcoin. BIPs cover everything from major protocol upgrades (BIP-141 for SegWit, BIP-340-342 for Taproot) to wallet-level conventions (BIP-39 for seed phrases, BIP-32 for hierarchical wallets, BIP-44 for derivation paths).

BIPs are the closest thing Bitcoin has to a formal change-management process. Anyone can submit one. The community discusses, refines, and ultimately decides whether to implement. There is no central authority that can force adoption — node operators and miners signal whether they support a proposal by running software that includes it.

For users, BIPs matter mostly as the language wallets use to describe their features. A wallet that says it is "BIP-39 compatible" means its seed phrase format is the standard one — your seed phrase will work in any other BIP-39 wallet too. That portability is valuable.

Learn this in our courses

Course topic

Bitcoin foundations

Start here. What Bitcoin is, where it came from, and why it matters.

Course topic

Wallets & self-custody

How to store Bitcoin so that nobody — not even us — can take it.

Related terms

Glossary

Seed phrase

A 12 or 24-word phrase that backs up your entire wallet. Lose it, lose your sats. Share it, lose your sats.

Glossary

BIP39

The standard for generating a wallet from a 12 or 24-word seed phrase.

Glossary

Taproot

A 2021 Bitcoin upgrade (BIP-340-342) that enables more efficient and private transactions, especially for multisig and Lightning.

← Back to the full glossary

Learn Bitcoin the practical way

Real lessons, sats earned, your own wallet. Free to start.