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Gavin Andresen

Author of 12 BIPs.

  • BIP 11: M-of-N Standard Transactions: Deployed. Made "M-of-N" transactions, which require any M signatures out of N possible keys, a standard type that nodes relay. This enabled shared-control arrangements such as escrow or wallets needing two of…
  • BIP 12: OP_EVAL: Closed. Proposed a new script command, OP_EVAL, that would let the receiver of coins define the conditions for spending them instead of the sender. It was abandoned over security concerns and replaced by…
  • BIP 13: Address Format for pay-to-script-hash: Deployed. Defines the address format for pay-to-script-hash, the addresses that begin with "3". Such an address stands for a hidden set of spending rules, so people can pay into arrangements like multisig as…
  • BIP 16: Pay to Script Hash: Deployed. Introduced Pay to Script Hash (P2SH), letting a sender pay to a short fingerprint of spending rules that the recipient reveals only when spending. This shifted the cost and complexity of setups like…
  • BIP 34: Block v2, Height in Coinbase: Deployed. Upgraded blocks to version 2 and required each block's coinbase transaction (the one paying the miner) to include the block's height. This makes every coinbase unique, preventing duplicate…
  • BIP 50: March 2013 Chain Fork Post-Mortem: Deployed. A post-mortem of the March 2013 incident in which a database limit in older Bitcoin software caused the blockchain to split temporarily. It explains what went wrong, how miners and developers…
  • BIP 61: Reject P2P message: Deployed. Adds a "reject" message so a node can tell a peer why it refused a transaction or block. This made troubleshooting easier for wallet and node developers, though Bitcoin Core later removed the message.
  • BIP 70: Payment Protocol: Deployed. Defines a payment protocol in which a merchant sends a signed payment request directly to the customer's wallet. It aimed to improve checkout and protect against attackers swapping addresses, though…
  • BIP 71: Payment Protocol MIME types: Deployed. Defines official internet media types (MIME types) for payment protocol messages. These labels let browsers and email programs recognize a Bitcoin payment request and pass it to the right wallet.
  • BIP 72: bitcoin: uri extensions for Payment Protocol: Deployed. Extends "bitcoin:" links (BIP 21) with a parameter pointing to a payment request from the payment protocol (BIP 70). Wallets that support the protocol fetch the merchant's signed request, while…
  • BIP 101: Increase maximum block size: Closed. Proposed replacing the fixed 1 MB block size limit with a limit that grows automatically on a predictable schedule over time. Supporters argued it would let Bitcoin handle more transactions as…
  • BIP 109: Two million byte size limit with sigop and sighash limits: Closed. Proposed doubling the block size limit from 1 MB to 2 MB, alongside new caps on signature checks and data hashing to stop specially crafted blocks from overloading nodes. It was associated with the…