BIP 3 Replaces BIP 2 as Bitcoin’s Improvement-Proposal Process
BIP 3 reached deployed status and replaced BIP 2 with a streamlined process for creating, maintaining and evaluating Bitcoin Improvement Proposals.
In January 2026, BIP 3 became the deployed process document governing preparation and publication of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals, replacing BIP 2. Authored by Murch, the document describes itself as a streamlined process that can evolve with the needs of the BIP system and reduces procedural complexity around how proposals are documented and maintained.
The BIP process does not itself determine Bitcoin consensus. Instead, it provides the shared documentary structure through which developers describe standards, protocol proposals, informational work and process changes. Altering that process therefore affects how Bitcoin technical ideas move from discussion into durable public specifications, even though it does not activate any consensus rule.
This is a governance and developer-process event rather than a software-release milestone. Its historical value is that Bitcoin's main proposal framework was formally modernized, replacing the prior BIP 2 rules that had shaped proposal handling for years.