Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)
Written by Steve Miller
Introduction
An Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) is the document used to provide information to the Ethereum community regarding requests for enhancements or proposed upgrades to the Ethereum protocol. It is analogous to the Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIP).
Proposals are expected to include a rationale for why the feature should be implemented and a technical specification outlining how implementation will occur.
EIPs come in a variety of types including:
- Standard Track – Changes affecting a majority of Ethereum implementations
- Core – Improvements requiring a consensus fork
- Networking – Improvements to network protocol specifications
- Interface – Improvements to client specifications and standards
- ERC – Application-level standards and conventions
- Meta – Process change requests
- Informational – Guidelines for developing in Ethereum
Once a proposal is submitted a process kicks off giving the community the opportunity to decide whether it makes sense to include it in Ethereum’s future development. The stages of this process are:
- Draft – An open EIP subject to change
- Last Call – An open EIP that is ready for review
- Final (non-Core) – In last call for at least two weeks with requested technical changes completed
- Final (Core) – Core Devs approve and intend to implement in future hard fork
- Deferred – Will not be immediately adopted, but open for future reconsideration.
Accepted proposals become standards ensuring any applications, smart contracts, etc. built using them are accessible when interfacing with Ethereum.
Suggested Reading
What is an EIP? by Tim Beiko