BIP Index

A BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) is the document format used to propose, describe, and discuss changes and conventions in Bitcoin. Because Bitcoin has no central authority that decides changes, a BIP is a proposal and its record rather than a decision: it takes effect only when implementations adopt it and nodes enforce it as a validation rule. Numbers are assigned in the order proposals are accepted and say nothing about importance.

Each BIP opens with a preamble carrying a Status and a Type. Under the current process (BIP 3), Status is one of Draft, Complete, Deployed, or Closed, where Deployed means the proposal is actually in use. Type distinguishes Specification, Informational, and Process documents, while Layer indicates which layer a change touches (Consensus, Peer Services, or Applications). Every value shown here was read directly from the source document in the bips repository, and each page states the date it was verified.

This index is deliberately not exhaustive. Of the 400-plus proposals, it covers the 19 that the articles in this library actually cite. What each page carries is a summary in plain language, not a translation: the original document is authoritative, and for implementation or verification you should always consult the primary source linked from every page.