Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP) are proposed modifications to the Ethereum protocol. Anyone can propose them, and there is no assurance that they will ever be adopted. The goal of EIPs is to provide a more flexible manner of changing the Ethereum protocol without the need for a hard split.
This article will be going over Ethereum Improvement Proposals, how they work and the various types of Ethereum Improvement Proposals there is. So without further ado, lets dive in.
What Are Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP)?
Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) are documents that suggest new features and procedures for the Ethereum blockchain. They can be submitted to the Ethereum platform by any member of the Ethereum community.
Typically, developers or groups of developers will often submit an EIP based on proposed improvements to the Ethereum protocol and network. The proposals are assessed and debated by Ethereum’s core developers, who manage the repository on the GitHub platform. EIPs are evaluated at different levels. If they are eventually approved, they are frequently combined together to form enhancements known as “forks.”
How Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP) Works
EIP-001 fully defines the operation of the EIPs. This procedure begins with the author of the EIP developing the concept or proposal. At this stage, the author has responsibility for development, and he must give and argue the required reasons to justify the need for his proposal. As a result, the author of the EIP must develop a well stated notion and offer it in the body of the EIP, together with a rationale and supporting components.
As a result, we now have the following stages:
First Stage: Presentation of the Idea
It is an EIP’s most basic and unrefined stage. On the Ethereum forums, it effectively presents the update as a proposal. The goal is to get input from the community on whether or not to continue developing the idea in a more detailed manner.
Second Stage: Creation of the Draft
At this phase, the concept has already been embodied and is being carried out in accordance with the organizational criteria required of an Ethereum Improvement Proposals. It’s an active, work-in-progress where you can submit follow-up requests with further changes to your draft until you believe the EIP is mature and ready to go to the next step.
Third Stage: Last Call
The updated draft is now available on the EIPS Ethereum website. The goal of this stage is to show the EIP to as many individuals as possible in the community, make any necessary modifications, and develop a fully working and revised implementation of the EIP.
Fourth Stage: Acceptance
This status suggests that significant changes are unlikely, and Ethereum client developers should consider include this EIP. Your decision to alter it on your customers as part of a hard fork is not part of the EIP process. This classification applies solely to EIPs for basic blockchain processes.
Fifth Stage: Final Presentation
This point denotes a situation in which the EIP should only be updated to remedy typos. Other states can also be marked, such as:
- Assets: Some informative and process Ethereum Improvement Proposals might have a “Active” state if they never need to be finished.
- Cancelled: The original authors no longer intend to implement this EIP, or it may no longer be a viable (technically) alternative
- Rejected: An EIP that is fundamentally broken or a Core EIP that was rejected by Core Devs and will not be implemented.
- Replaced: An EIP that was previously Final but is no longer considered cutting edge. Another EIP will be in the Final state and will refer to the Superseded EIP.
Types Of Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIP)
There are three major types of Ethereum Improvement Proposals:
- Standards Track EIP
- Meta EIP
- Informational EIP
Standard Track EIP
A Standards Track Ethereum Improvement Proposal describes any change that affects the majority or all Ethereum implementations, such as a change to the network protocol, a change in block or transaction validity rules, proposed application standards/conventions, or any other change or addition that affects the interoperability of Ethereum-based applications.
Standards Track EIPs include three components: a design document, an implementation, and (if necessary) an update to the formal specification. Furthermore, Standards Track EIPs can be classified into the following groups:
- Core: improvements requiring a consensus fork (e.g. EIP-5, EIP-101), as well as changes that are not necessarily consensus critical but may be relevant to “core dev” discussions (for example, [EIP-90], and the miner/node strategy changes 2, 3, and 4 of EIP-86).
- Networking: includes improvements around devp2p (EIP-8) and Light Ethereum Subprotocol, as well as proposed improvements to network protocol specifications of whisper and swarm.
- Interface: includes improvements around client API/RPC specifications and standards, and also certain language-level standards like method names (EIP-6) and contract ABIs. The label “interface” aligns with the [interfaces repo] and discussion should primarily occur in that repository before an EIP is submitted to the EIPs repository.
- ERC: application-level standards and conventions, including contract standards such as token standards (EIP-20), name registries (EIP-137), URI schemes, library/package formats, and wallet formats.
Meta EIP
A Meta EIP describes a process related to Ethereum or suggests a modification to (or event within) a process. Process EIPs are similar to Standards Track EIPs in that they apply to areas other than the Ethereum protocol.
They may suggest an implementation, but not to the Ethereum codebase; they frequently need community consensus; and, unlike Informational EIPs, they are more than advice that users are not free to disregard.
Procedures, guidelines, modifications to the decision-making process, and changes to the tools or environment utilized in Ethereum development are all examples. Any meta-EIP is a Process EIP as well.
Informational EIP
An Informational Ethereum Improvement Proposal discusses an Ethereum design problem or gives general guidance or information to the Ethereum community without proposing a new feature. Users and implementers are allowed to ignore or follow Informational EIPs because they do not necessarily reflect Ethereum community consensus or a recommendation.
Besides these three main types, there are other ones out there. The Core Ethereum Improvement Proposal, for example, necessitates a consensus fork and typically involves arguments regarding non-core development modifications. In addition to Networking EIP, which incorporates changes to client requirements as well as EPI/RPC standards.
Conclusion on EIP
An Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) is any document that contains proposals for enhancing the protocol, network, and contract standards on the Ethereum blockchain. Because of its decentralization, any community member can submit new features and procedures, but this does not guarantee that the request will be implemented immediately.
