<p>Not every BIP is a fork (change in consensus rules). Some are standards for wallet software (like BIP32 and BIP39), the peer-to-peer protocol (BIP152) and other areas. The <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bips" rel="noreferrer">BIP repository</a> classifies a layer for each BIP, and those that change consensus rules are explicitly labeled &quot;Consensus&quot;.</p>
<p>It doesn't matter how &quot;impactful&quot; a BIP is when considering whether it is a fork, it is quite clearly defined. If it's a change in consensus rules that causes some currently invalid blocks to be valid, it is a hard fork. If the change causes some currently valid blocks to be invalid, it is a soft fork.</p>
<p>Every change in consensus rules, no matter how small, risks splitting the network into two once a block is created that is valid according to some nodes but not others.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-17T11:05:43.650Z
2022-09-17T11:20:35.920Z
2022-09-17T11:20:35.920Z
Vojtěch Strnad
<p>What precisely do we consider as fork?
It seems that every BIP can be seen as a fork, at least a soft fork since a lot of BIPs indeed are backward compatible. How big or impactful something has to be to be considered as fork?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-09-17T12:00:41.803Z
Related: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/30817/5406
Murch
<blockchain-fork><consensus><bip>
Is every BIP actually a small fork?
Boki XD
# Is every BIP actually a small fork?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-09-17)

What precisely do we consider as fork?
It seems that every BIP can be seen as a fork, at least a soft fork since a lot of BIPs indeed are backward compatible. How big or impactful something has to be to be considered as fork?

**Tags:** blockchain-fork, consensus, bip

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Related: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/q/30817/5406  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-09-17. Score: 7 | Accepted answer

Not every BIP is a fork (change in consensus rules). Some are standards for wallet software (like BIP32 and BIP39), the peer-to-peer protocol (BIP152) and other areas. The [BIP repository](https://github.com/bitcoin/bips) classifies a layer for each BIP, and those that change consensus rules are explicitly labeled "Consensus".

It doesn't matter how "impactful" a BIP is when considering whether it is a fork, it is quite clearly defined. If it's a change in consensus rules that causes some currently invalid blocks to be valid, it is a hard fork. If the change causes some currently valid blocks to be invalid, it is a soft fork.

Every change in consensus rules, no matter how small, risks splitting the network into two once a block is created that is valid according to some nodes but not others.


---

