BIP 138 is merged as a proposal for encrypted wallet metadata
The BIPs repository merged BIP 138 on September 21, documenting a compact encryption scheme for non-seed wallet data. It addressed information needed to reconstruct a wallet beyond the recovery seed itself.
On September 21, 2026, pull request #1951 merged BIP 138 into the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals repository. The document specified a compact encryption scheme for non-seed wallet data, continuing proposal work begun before September.
A recovery seed can reproduce keys without preserving all the information a wallet needs to interpret them. Output descriptors, multisignature policies and other metadata describe how keys form spendable outputs. Losing that material can therefore complicate recovery even when the seed is intact. BIP 138 addressed encrypting and carrying such data rather than replacing seed backups.
The scheme’s use of extended public-key material also makes its confidentiality assumptions relevant when that material is shared. Repository inclusion documented a specification for implementers; it did not activate a consensus change, deploy the scheme in every wallet or guarantee that any particular backup already used it. The September step concerned wallet-recovery interoperability and metadata handling.