bip

BIP 360 — Pay to Merkle Root (P2MR)

Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR), a quantum-resistant output type. Like Taproot without the quantum-vulnerable key path spend — commits only to the Merkle root of a script tree. SegWit v2, soft fork.

BIP 341 — Taproot: SegWit Version 1 Spending Rules

Taproot — Bitcoin's most significant protocol upgrade since SegWit. Combines Schnorr (BIP 340) with MAST so complex spending conditions look like simple payments on-chain.

BIP 340 — Schnorr Signatures for secp256k1

Schnorr signatures replacing ECDSA for Taproot. Provably secure, non-malleable, with efficient multi-signature aggregation — complex scripts become on-chain indistinguishable from simple payments.

BIP 141 — Segregated Witness (Consensus Layer)

Segregated Witness (SegWit) — Bitcoin's most significant protocol upgrade since creation. Separates signature from transaction data, fixing malleability, enabling Lightning, raising block capacity.

Peter Todd and David Harding formalize Replace-by-Fee in BIP 125

BIP 125 formalized opt-in Replace-by-Fee (RBF), tracing directly to Satoshi's December 2010 BitcoinTalk replacement mechanism — the thread where Peter Todd made his second-ever forum post.

BIP 125 — Opt-in Full Replace-by-Fee Signaling

Signaling mechanism for opt-in Replace-by-Fee (RBF) — unconfirmed transactions replaceable by higher-fee versions. Improved fee estimation but controversial for zero-confirmation security.

Peter Todd proposes BIP 65: OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY

Peter Todd proposed BIP 65, introducing OP_CHECKLOCKTIMEVERIFY — an opcode locking transaction outputs until a future time. Deployed as a soft fork, enabling escrow and payment channels.

BIP 39 — Mnemonic Code for Generating Deterministic Keys

Defined the standard for generating human-readable mnemonic seed phrases (typically 12 or 24 words) from random entropy. Combined with BIP 32, became the universal Bitcoin wallet backup method.

BIP 32 — Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets

Introduced hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallets — an entire tree of key pairs derived from a single master seed. Eliminated frequent-backup needs and enabled organized parent-child key derivation.

BIP 21 — URI Scheme

Defined the 'bitcoin:' URI scheme for standardized payment requests. Enables clickable Bitcoin addresses and QR codes with amount/label/message parameters — basis of user-friendly Bitcoin payments.

BIP 1 — BIP Purpose and Guidelines

The foundational BIP defining the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal process itself, modeled after Python's PEP. Three types: Standards Track, Informational, Process.