"Hey Bro, What are EIPs and BIPs? Are they Related to the Premier League? What's that Bro?"
โHaha ๐ , no Bro! You are thinking of the English Premier League .
EIPs and BIPs are not football teams. They are Rule Books.
โBro, just imagine Football.
The rules there (11 players, 90 minutes, no hands and much more) are the "Protocol."
But sometimes, the game needs an update. Maybe the referees are too slow, so someone suggests: "Let's add VAR (Video Assistant Referee)" .
They can't just change the rule overnight. They have to write a formal proposal, debate it, test it, and vote on it.
โThat Proposal document for Bitcoin is a BIP.
โThat Proposal document for Ethereum is an EIP.
โBlockchains are software. Software needs updates to fix bugs or add cool features. But because there is no "CEO of Bitcoin," random people can't just change the code.
โ1. BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)
โThe Vibe: Slow, conservative, careful.
โThe Logic: Bitcoin is like "Digital Gold." You don't want to change the rules of Gold every week.
โExample: SegWit (BIP 141). This was a massive upgrade that made Bitcoin transactions smaller and faster. It took years of fighting to get approved.
โ2. EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal)
โThe Vibe: Fast, innovative, constant updates.
โThe Logic: Ethereum is a "World Computer." It needs software patches to run new apps.
โExample: EIP-1559. This famous update changed how gas fees work (burning ETH).
โBonus Fact: You know ERC-20 tokens (like SHIB or PEPE)? "ERC-20" is actually just a specific EIP (EIP-20) that became a standard!
โโ How a Bill Becomes a Law
โAnyone (even you & me) can write a BIP or EIP. But getting it accepted is the hard part.
โThe Draft: You write the idea down in a very specific technical format.
โThe Debate: You post it on forums ( like Ethereum Magicians). Developers will tear it apart. โ This is unsafe! Or This breaks the code โ
โThe Consensus: If the core developers and the community agree it's a good idea, it gets merged into the code.
โThe Activation: The miners/validators update their software. The rule becomes law.
โโ Satoshi is Gone, So Who Decides?
โThis is the craziest part. Since Satoshi disappeared in 2011, who actually presses the "Upgrade" button?
โThe Answer: Nobody and Everybody.
There is no "Update Button." It is a war of influence between three groups:
โThe Developers (The Architects): A group called "Bitcoin Core Maintainers" writes the code. But they cannot force anyone to use it. They just publish it on GitHub like a suggestion.
โThe Miners (The Security): They run the expensive machines. If they don't like the new rule (BIP), they simply refuse to install the update. The new code dies.
โThe Nodes (The Users): You and me running a node. If the miners try to force a bad rule, we can refuse to update our nodes. The miners would be mining a coin that nobody accepts.
โIt is like Apple releasing a new iOS update, but Tim Cook is dead (assume man), and you only update your iPhone if You, the App Developers, and the Phone Factories all agree it's a good idea. If you disagree, the network splits (Hard Fork).
โโ Why Does This Matter?
In a company like Apple, Tim Cook decides the features.
In Crypto, We decide the features through EIPs and BIPs. It is the bureaucracy of decentralization.
If you see news like "Ethereum Pectra Upgrade is coming," that is just a bundle of several EIPs being activated at once.ย
