BIP 3: Bitcoin Core Modernizes Process for Improvement Proposals
After almost ten years, the formal handling of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals has been fundamentally revised – with the goal of more clearly separating documentation from consensus.
The Bitcoin developer community has comprehensively reformed the process surrounding Bitcoin Improvement Proposals for the first time since 2016 with BIP 3. The changes do not affect the Bitcoin protocol itself, but rather the way improvement proposals are documented and managed [1].
A central element of the reform is the clear separation between formal documentation and actual network consensus. An accepted BIP text now simply means a completed description, not a decision about implementation in the Bitcoin network [1].
The number of status designations has been reduced from nine to four: Draft, complete, deployed, and closed. This is intended to improve traceability, after terms like "Final" or "Active" were often interpreted differently in the past [1].
Additionally, the role of BIP editors has been depoliticized. They are now solely responsible for formal aspects such as structure and format, no longer for content evaluation. This is intended to counter accusations of "gatekeeping" [1].
Critics note, however, that informal pre-selection by established developer circles continues to exist. The reform merely makes this filter more transparent without fundamentally eliminating it [1].
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