A visual exploration tool for Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs). Understand how BIPs evolve over time, their relationships, governance dynamics, and their impact on the Bitcoin protocol.
- Interactive Graph Visualization - D3.js force-directed graph showing BIP relationships
- Timeline Navigation - Slide through time (2011-2026) to see BIP evolution
- Category Filters - Filter by layer: Consensus, Peer Services, API/RPC, Applications, Process
- Advanced Filtering - Filter by status, layer, and author (sorted by contribution count)
- Search - Real-time search by BIP number, title, status, or layer
- Color-Coded Status - BIP cards have subtle background colors indicating their status
- 188 BIPs Included - Full dataset from the official bitcoin/bips repository, enriched with bips.dev metadata
- Technical abstract and ELI5 (Explain Like I'm 5) explanations
- Author information with links
- Related BIPs (requires/enables) with clickable links
- Status and activation dates
- Governance activity card (commits, contributors per BIP)
- Power Concentration Metrics - Gini coefficient of commit authorship, top-3 merge share
- Review Quality Tracking - Zero-review merge rates over time
- Governance Events Timeline - Key moments (UASF, SegWit, Taproot) with linked BIPs
- Era Summary - Bitcoin development eras from Satoshi to Modern
- Yearly BIP Creation Chart - Bar chart of BIP creation over time
For the complete dataset with all 188 BIPs:
# Using Python
python -m http.server 8000
# Using Node.js
npx serve
# Then open http://localhost:8000Simply open index.html in your browser. Falls back to embedded data with 8 key BIPs if server is not available.
# Windows
start index.html
# macOS
open index.html
# Linux
xdg-open index.htmlTo update BIP and governance data from upstream sources:
# Fetch all BIPs from bitcoin/bips
node scripts/fetch-bips.js
node scripts/parse-bips.js
# Enrich with data from bips.dev (GitHub links, comments, licenses)
node scripts/fetch-bips-dev.js
node scripts/merge-bips-dev.js
# Add any new BIPs that exist in bips.dev but not locally
node scripts/add-missing-bips.js
# Governance data pipeline
node scripts/curate-governance-findings.js
GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_xxx node scripts/fetch-governance-github.js
node scripts/merge-governance-data.jsBIP-visualizator/
├── index.html # Main visualization page
├── README.md # This file
├── LICENSE # MIT License
├── data/
│ ├── bips/
│ │ ├── index.json # BIP index (188 BIPs)
│ │ └── bip-XXXX/ # Individual BIP folders
│ │ ├── bip.yml # Metadata (status, authors, relations)
│ │ └── en.md # Content (abstract, ELI5, links)
│ └── bips-dev-raw/ # Enrichment data from bips.dev
│ └── index.json # Cached enrichment data
├── scripts/
│ ├── fetch-bips.js # Fetch BIPs from bitcoin/bips GitHub
│ ├── parse-bips.js # Parse mediawiki to yml/md
│ ├── fetch-bips-dev.js # Fetch enrichment from bips.dev
│ ├── merge-bips-dev.js # Merge enrichment into database
│ ├── add-missing-bips.js # Add new BIPs from bips.dev
│ ├── curate-governance-findings.js # Extract governance metrics
│ ├── fetch-governance-github.js # Per-BIP GitHub commit data
│ └── merge-governance-data.js # Merge governance into single file
├── data/
│ ├── bips/ # 188 BIP folders (bip.yml + en.md)
│ ├── bips-dev-raw/ # Cached bips.dev enrichment data
│ └── governance/ # Governance research data
│ ├── findings.json # Curated governance findings
│ └── governance.json # Merged governance data for frontend
├── docs/
│ ├── ARCHITECTURE.md # Technical architecture
│ ├── CONTRIBUTING.md # Contribution guidelines
│ └── DATA-GUIDE.md # Data format documentation
└── src/
├── bip-detail.html # BIP detail page
├── css/
│ ├── style.css # Main styles (dark theme)
│ └── detail.css # Detail page styles
└── js/
├── app.js # Main application
├── bips-data.js # Embedded BIP data (fallback)
├── data-loader.js # Data loading utilities
├── detail.js # Detail page logic
├── filters.js # Category filter component
├── governance-loader.js # Governance data access layer
├── governance.js # Governance dashboard UI
├── graph.js # D3.js graph visualization
└── timeline.js # Timeline slider component
bip: 32
title: "Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets"
layer: "Applications" # Applications | Consensus (soft fork) | Peer Services
type: "Informational" # Informational | Standards Track | Process
status: "Final" # Draft | Proposed | Final | Active | Withdrawn | Rejected | Replaced
authors:
- name: "Pieter Wuille"
email: "pieter.wuille@gmail.com"
created: "2012-02-11"
activated: null # Date when activated (for consensus changes)
withdrawn: null
license: "BSD-2-Clause"
github: "https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki"
comments_uri: "https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/wiki/Comments:BIP-0032"
comments_summary: "No comments yet."
relations:
requires: [] # BIPs this one depends on
replaces: [] # BIPs this one supersedes
superseded_by: [] # BIPs that replace this one
enables: [39, 44, 84] # BIPs that depend on this one (auto-computed)
tags:
- "wallet"
- "key-derivation"# Abstract
Technical description of the BIP...
# ELI5
Simple explanation for beginners...
# Motivation
Why this BIP was proposed...
# Links
- [Official BIP](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0032.mediawiki)BIP cards in the list have subtle background colors based on their status:
| Status | Background | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Final/Active | Light Green | Accepted and implemented |
| Proposed | Light Yellow | Ready for community review |
| Draft | Light Gray | Initial proposal |
| Withdrawn/Deferred | Light Slate | Abandoned or postponed |
| Rejected/Replaced | Light Red | Not accepted or superseded |
Hovering over a BIP card shows the full status name as a tooltip.
- Frontend: Vanilla HTML/CSS/JavaScript (no frameworks)
- Graph: D3.js v7 for force-directed relationship graph
- Charts: Chart.js for governance bar charts
- Data Parsing: js-yaml for YAML
- Markdown: marked for rendering
- Styling: CSS custom properties (dark theme)
- Chrome/Edge 80+
- Firefox 75+
- Safari 13+
The most valuable contribution is writing simple explanations for BIPs:
- Pick a BIP without an ELI5
- Edit
data/bips/bip-XXXX/en.md - Add a clear, jargon-free explanation under
# ELI5 - Submit a PR
Content supports multiple languages:
en.md- English (default)fr.md- Frenches.md- Spanish- etc.
- bitcoin/bips - Official BIP repository (primary source)
- bips.dev - Enriched metadata (GitHub links, comments, licenses)
- bitcoin-governance-research - Governance metrics and analysis
- Plan B Network - Educational content
Visit Plan B Academy for more Bitcoin education.
MIT License - See LICENSE for details.