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Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs): Wiki

Scope & target audience

Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs) fulfil the same role for Cardano as the standards of other blockchains, including BIPs for Bitcoin and EIPs for Ethereum. Their original and up-to-date specification is in the first CIP: CIP-0001.

CIP-0001 was long considered the only necessary document to describe Cardano's standards process, and the history of the material in the cardano-foundation/CIPs GitHub repository (PRs and Issues) was deemed to contain all the knowledge CIP editors and community members would need to understand the CIP process, and by example to write and evaluate new CIPs.

Three years from that beginning, the level of community interaction resulting from the CIP process has become more complex and widespread, so the current editors believe the quality of Cardano's standards process will benefit from a higher level description of the process beyond the bare technical requirements outlined in CIP-0001.

These pages should always be considered living documents: if readers of any category believe the material needs to be corrected or extended, please file a GitHub Issue so editors can respond to your suggestion. Editors will also ensure proactively that this material remains up to date.

Major sections

Readers are encouraged to read all material up through the level of your involvement: skipping any subtopics that might not be relevant to you. More detailed topics will be given longer index numbers in the title, visible under the ▸ Pages heading in the sidebar, branching from these major headings:

Note

Expanding any article in the sidebar (clicking ▸ symbol) will show links to all of its own headings (under ▾ symbol)

1. CIPs for the Community

Start here to get an overview of the CIP process and to understand its importance in the development, economics, and governance of Cardano.

2. CIPs for Reviewers & Authors

Learn about CIP review expectations and characteristics of good CIPs: in support of helpful CIP reviews and compelling Cardano Improvement Proposals. Continue through here if thinking of writing your own CIP.

3. CIPs for Editors

This is a checklist of CIP editor responsibilities and goals: for editors themselves, those interested in becoming editors, and anyone with a deeper interest in the overall CIP process.

Key links & resources

Discord: Cardano Improvement Proposals (use invitation link if not already a member), containing:

• Channel for biweekly CIP Meetings (video & screen sharing supported, but mainly voice is used)
• Discussions & announcements of working groups (wallets, metadata, query, other data structures & tooling)
• Subscribe for invitations to CIP meetings: https://lu.ma/cardano-cip

Web sites where CIPs are also listed:

• cips.cardano.org = CIP archive statistics & formatted display
• Cardano Developer Portal > Governance > Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs)

Cardano Forum: CIP Category