WBIPs: A Bitcoin-Centric Wallet Standard

Web3 builders want to do cool things on Bitcoin, but in order to do that, they need standard specifications for how web apps talk to Bitcoin. In particular, they need a Bitcoin-centric wallet standard that doesn’t compromise on Web3 capabilities or seamless UX.

In early 2023, a group of devs and builders, including Hiro, Xverse, Leather, Asigna, and Bifrost Wallet came together to form WBIPs, a working group dedicated to establishing a better and more flexible set of specifications for Bitcoin wallets.

The guiding principle of WBIPs is to create a Bitcoin-centric wallet standard. By “Bitcoin-centric”, we mean a few things, so let’s break down this Bitcoin-centric philosophy:

• Bitcoin is a first-class citizen. This standard should focus on the ability to use Bitcoin in the context of web applications and wallets.
• There is an emphasis on flexibility that enables people to use Bitcoin in whatever way they want whether that’s transacting on the BTC L1, interacting with metaprotocols like Ordinals and Runes, using apps and Bitcoin layers, or trying some yet-to-be-created protocol in the future.
• UTXO and account-based models are on equal footing. There will be no compromising the experience of one model for the gain of another.

Today, WBIPs is the wallet standard adopted by Leather, Xverse, and Asigna, and the standard was recently used for guiding the latest Reown standard (formerly WalletConnect). Learn more about this new emerging standard below:

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