River Intelligence

Sign up for our curated weekly newsletter delivering exclusive market insights to your inbox.

Build your Bitcoin wealth with River

green checkmark

No-fee recurring buys

green checkmark

Bitcoin mining

green checkmark

Phone support

Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP)


A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) is a formal proposal to change Bitcoin. Upgrades and security improvements enter the Bitcoin codebase via BIPs. Upgrades such as SegWit, HD Wallets, PSBT and more were all introduced via BIPs, which then underwent a review process and community discussion before being accepted. However, not all BIPs propose code changes. Some, such as BIP 39’s standard of mnemonic phrase backups, establish standards to be used by other Bitcoin related projects.

Smaller changes to Bitcoin, such as bug fixes, code refactoring, or minor efficiency improvements are not included in BIPs. Rather, these changes are submitted directly to Bitcoin’s codebase as proposed code changes.