bitcoin-dev

Ordinals BIP PR

Ordinals BIP PR

Original Postby Peter Todd

Posted on: October 23, 2023 15:35 UTC

In the email, the sender discusses their decision not to request a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) for OpenTimestamps, despite its relevance to Bitcoin users.

They state that they believe BIPs are being used for too many things and that BIP assignment should be limited to widely-used standards that serve the core mission of Bitcoin.

The sender mentions that much of the commonly used software, including Bitcoin Core, is timestamped with OpenTimestamps (OTS). However, they argue that documenting every protocol that uses Bitcoin with a BIP is unnecessary. They believe that BIP assignment and acceptance signify approval for a protocol, and therefore should be reserved for extremely widespread standards used by the entire Bitcoin community.

The sender also highlights that Lightning, another widely-used technology, is not standardized through the BIP process. They view this as a positive aspect and appreciate that Lightning doesn't require approval from Core maintainers. Instead, Lightning has its own separate process called BOLT.

Overall, the sender expresses their stance on BIP assignment, suggesting that it should be limited to protocols of significant importance to the Bitcoin community. They provide a link to their website (https://petertodd.org) and mention their email address (peter@petertodd.org), indicating further resources for readers interested in exploring the topic.