What is with all these BIPs. Do most people on here know what it means?

[TheGodson]

I keeps seeing BIP148, BIP91, BIP1, BIP... BIP BIP BIP.

What is with all these BIPs and what do they mean? Is the number after it just an arbitrary number or is there a bigger meaning?


Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm a noob and sometimes I get these mixed up with block sizes and all the hard forks, soft forks, hard spoons, and soft spoons. Ahhhhhh!

(okay, I was kidding about the spoons.  )

[NorrisK]

The BIP are suggestions to improve the bitcoin network.

They can include stuff like bigger blocks and segwit. Most big changes need either a soft or hard fork to be implemented.

If there is no consensus and a new bip gets implemented, this may lead to a split.

[DooMAD]

I keeps seeing BIP148, BIP91, BIP1, BIP... BIP BIP BIP.

What is with all these BIPs and what do they mean? Is the number after it just an arbitrary number or is there a bigger meaning?

It's a very jargon-heavy forum, so it can take a bit of time to get used to the lingo we use here.  The numbers are generally assigned, but there are some instances where some proposals don't have BIP numbers, so it's difficult to give a precise answer on that one.  But there's definitely no order of importance with the numbers or anything like that.  I tried to summarise a few of the ones you may have been hearing about recently in a topic I started here, but it's important to note that not all BIPs are related to scaling issues.  There's a Bitcoin wiki if you wanted more details:

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bitcoin_Improvement_Proposals

I also found an article here which puts it all in plain English.  Hope that helps.

[Meuh6879]

It's better explained here : https://bitcoincore.org/en/bips/

[davis196]

I keeps seeing BIP148, BIP91, BIP1, BIP... BIP BIP BIP.

What is with all these BIPs and what do they mean? Is the number after it just an arbitrary number or is there a bigger meaning?


Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm a noob and sometimes I get these mixed up with block sizes and all the hard forks, soft forks, hard spoons, and soft spoons. Ahhhhhh!

(okay, I was kidding about the spoons.  )

It`s not a stupid question at all.I think that 90% of all bitcoin  users don`t undertand what all those
BIP148,BIP91 terms mean.I quess that the bitcoin devs think that we all understand programming and how the blockchain works.I still don`t know what does BIP mean?Is it "Bitcoin Implementation Proposal","Bitcoin Improvement Proposal" or something totally different?

[DooMAD]

It's better explained here : https://bitcoincore.org/en/bips/

I'm not sure if you've linked to the wrong page by mistake, but that's literally just a list of BIPs.  It doesn't actually explain anything.  I don't see how that would be remotely helpful or constructive for new users at all.  Perhaps you meant to link to this instead?

What is a BIP?

BIP stands for Bitcoin Improvement Proposal. A BIP is a design document providing information to the Bitcoin community, or describing a new feature for Bitcoin or its processes or environment. The BIP should provide a concise technical specification of the feature and a rationale for the feature.

We intend BIPs to be the primary mechanisms for proposing new features, for collecting community input on an issue, and for documenting the design decisions that have gone into Bitcoin. The BIP author is responsible for building consensus within the community and documenting dissenting opinions.

Because the BIPs are maintained as text files in a versioned repository, their revision history is the historical record of the feature proposal.

It's certainly linked from the page you linked to, but could be easily missed and scrolled past.

[Meuh6879]

BIPS need to be used in the whole network.

Only listed BIPS (on my link) are in place ... (for example, BIP91 is not recognize by Bitcoin Core, the 97% of the Bitcoin Network in nodes representation)

BIPS explanations can be found here : https://github.com/bitcoin/bips

[Red-Apple]

BIP is simply "proposal" and that is what the P stands for.
if the network accept a BIP that becomes a part of bitcoin and if the network reject it, it will be dead in the water.

i also found this topic useful: Segwit and the August 1st and SegWit2x fork explained in simple terms thanks to Mad7Scientist
these are all the related stuff (not just BIPs) that you hear around here regarding scaling and these SegWits,...

[User365]

A BIP is a Bitcoin Imorovement Proposal, basically a suggested update for the network.

All the different numbers, are different proposals

https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/README.mediawiki

[olushakes]

I keeps seeing BIP148, BIP91, BIP1, BIP... BIP BIP BIP.

What is with all these BIPs and what do they mean? Is the number after it just an arbitrary number or is there a bigger meaning?


Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm a noob and sometimes I get these mixed up with block sizes and all the hard forks, soft forks, hard spoons, and soft spoons. Ahhhhhh!

(okay, I was kidding about the spoons.  )

I can say its not a stupid question because even me as a Sr Member rank on the forum cannot authoritative say this is what it means and even just now I searched for a thread like this to get a further understanding of what I have come to know in which I believe is just a basic understanding. However, my own curiosity is on the fact that last week the news is all about SegWit August 1 and this week its now BIP in which I don't understand whether one has been abandoned for the other or both are going to be implemented?

[Ayers]

I keeps seeing BIP148, BIP91, BIP1, BIP... BIP BIP BIP.

What is with all these BIPs and what do they mean? Is the number after it just an arbitrary number or is there a bigger meaning?


Sorry if this is a stupid question, but I'm a noob and sometimes I get these mixed up with block sizes and all the hard forks, soft forks, hard spoons, and soft spoons. Ahhhhhh!

(okay, I was kidding about the spoons.  )

those are all proposal, or soft fork some are hard fork, if i'm right, bip141 is the original segwit, bip148 is a UASF, bip91 is another way to have segwit, the hard fork can happen only if they add 2mb block limit