Improvement Proposal

An improvement proposal is the written, numbered document through which a change to a protocol is proposed, discussed and standardised. Bitcoin has BIPs, Ethereum has EIPs, and most networks have adopted some version of the format. Each one states a problem, specifies the change precisely enough to implement, and passes through public review before it is considered final. The number is useful shorthand: a wallet feature or a fee change often traces back to a single proposal a reader can look up and read. What a proposal is not is a decision. Acceptance into the standards process is separate from adoption, and adoption means node operators actually running software that implements it. That distinction is where governance really lives — the document describes the change, but whether it takes effect depends on who chooses to run it.