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In this episode of “The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado,” hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost explained what Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs) are, and how the BIP process works. They discussed why the BIP process is a useful, yet non-binding, convention within Bitcoin’s technical community.
Van Wirdum and Provoost started off by explaining what a BIP is exactly — and what it is not. They also explained that only improvements to Bitcoin software that affect other projects require a BIP. The two went on to dive into the history of the BIP process a little bit, noting that the format was introduced by Libbitcoin developer Amir Taaki and later updated by Bitcoin Knots maintainer Luke Dashjr.
Finally, van Wirdum and Provoost explained how the BIP process itself works, that is, how a proposal can be turned into a BIP, and eventually be implemented in software. They also briefly explained how the BIP process could become corrupted, and why that wouldn’t be a very big deal.
This episode was originally scheduled to be aired on Friday, June 4, but was delayed due to last week’s Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami.