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Key Derivation BIPs

Key derivation methods. 10 proposals.

• BIP 32 (HD wallets): Hierarchical Deterministic Wallets: Deployed. Defines hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallets, in which a single seed generates a whole tree of keys. Users can back up a wallet once and share watch-only parts, for example with a shop or…
• BIP 43: Purpose Field for Deterministic Wallets: Deployed. Reserves the first level of an HD wallet's key tree for a "purpose" number that says which layout the rest of the tree follows. This lets different wallet standards coexist and helps software…
• BIP 44 (BIP44 derivation path): Multi-Account Hierarchy for Deterministic Wallets: Deployed. Defines a standard layout for HD wallets that organizes keys by coin type, account, and receiving versus change addresses. Because wallets share this layout, a recovery phrase from one wallet can…
• BIP 45: Structure for Deterministic P2SH Multisignature Wallets: Complete. Defines a key structure for HD wallets shared among several co-signers using P2SH multisig. It lets each participant independently generate the same series of shared addresses without exchanging new…
• BIP 49 (nested SegWit derivation): Derivation scheme for P2WPKH-nested-in-P2SH based accounts: Deployed. Defines how HD wallets derive keys for SegWit addresses wrapped inside P2SH, which begin with "3". This let wallets offer cheaper SegWit transactions while staying payable from older software that…
• BIP 67: Deterministic Pay-to-script-hash multi-signature addresses through public key sorting: Complete. Specifies sorting the public keys in a multisig setup into a fixed order, so the same keys always produce the same P2SH address. Co-signers can then independently compute matching addresses without…
• BIP 84 (native SegWit derivation): Derivation scheme for P2WPKH based accounts: Deployed. Specifies the standard key path for HD wallets that use native SegWit addresses (those starting with 'bc1q'). Agreeing on this path means a user can restore the same seed phrase in different wallet…
• BIP 85: Deterministic Entropy From BIP32 Keychains: Deployed. Describes how to derive fresh, independent secrets, such as new seed phrases or passwords, from one master wallet seed. Users can back up a single seed yet create separate seeds for other wallets,…
• BIP 86 (Taproot derivation): Key Derivation for Single Key P2TR Outputs: Deployed. Defines the standard key path for HD wallets that use single-key Taproot addresses (those starting with 'bc1p'). It plays the same role for Taproot that BIP 84 does for SegWit, so seed phrases…
• BIP 87: Hierarchy for Deterministic Multisig Wallets: Complete. Establishes a common key structure for multisignature wallets, where spending requires approval from several keys. Unlike earlier schemes, a single layout covers all script types, which makes it…