bitcoin-dev

Adding New BIP Editors

Adding New BIP Editors

Original Postby Michael Folkson

Posted on: April 20, 2024 22:21 UTC

The discourse within the Bitcoin development community, as evidenced by recent email exchanges, underscores a growing concern about the process of managing and integrating proposed changes to Bitcoin's protocol, particularly through Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs).

One notable point of contention is the potential for "revert wars," a scenario where disagreements among BIP editors over merge decisions could lead to instability and conflict within the development process. This situation raises questions about the criteria and processes for selecting BIP editors, as well as the mechanisms in place for resolving disagreements among them.

Additionally, there's apprehension about how future attempts to activate soft forks might be managed, especially considering that such endeavors may not necessarily proceed through merges in the Bitcoin Core repository but rather via the BIPs repository. This suggests a need for more structured governance and oversight within the BIPs repository to prevent it from becoming disorganized or overly contentious. The return of Wladimir van der Laan to contributing to the Bitcoin Core suggests a potential avenue for re-establishing a degree of oversight and stability within the project's various repositories. However, the communication reflects a broader concern regarding whether there is a comprehensive plan to maintain order and coherence across the Bitcoin Core GitHub organization, including but not limited to the handling of BIPs.