Ethereum Improvement Proposals (EIPs) describe standards for the Ethereum platform, including core protocol specifications, client APIs, and contract standards.
Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) is a document used to describe standards for the Ethereum community.
There are a number of different types of EIPs.
The Standard Track: These are changes that impact all or most Ethereum implementations including changes to the network protocol.
Core: These changes require a consensus fork. They can often include discussions involving non-core development changes.
Networking: This includes improvements to network protocol specifications such as the devp2p (EIP8) and the Ethereum Subprotocol.
Interface: This includes improvements in client standards and specifications including API/RPC standards and specifications.
ERC: These refer to application-level standards and conventions and include name registries and token standards.
Meta: These processes change requests and operate similar to a Standard Track EIPs but apply to parts other than the Ethereum protocol.
Informational: This provides guidelines in designing Ethereum. Users and implementers can ignore informational EIPs as they don’t necessarily reflect an Ethereum community recommendation.
A number of other processes are involved to decide whether to include the changes once an EIP is submitted.
These include:
Draft: An EIP that is openly being considered.
Last Call: An EIP that has undergone initial consideration and is ready for review.
Final (Non-core): An EIP that is in last call for a minimum of two weeks and all technical concerns that have been raised have been dealt with.
Final (Core): An EIP that Core devs approve or intend to implement in future in hard fork.
Deferred: An EIP that will not be immediately adopted but is being considered for later adoption.
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