In Bitcoin, changes to the protocol come in the form of BIPs, or Bitcoin Improvement Proposals.
These can be changes in the network protocol, block or transaction validation, or anything affecting interoperability.
This is the way the community votes on changes that they want to support.
There are three types of BIPS: standard, informational, and process.
A standard BIP is an actual update or change to the protocol.
This is how the ecosystem changes, and what miners vote on.
Informational BIPs are more so guidelines on how people should do things in the future, but it doesn’t change the protocol.
An example of an informational BIP would be a BIP talking about how to run a mining pool.
The last BIP, process BIPs, are specific things that should be done as well as best practices.
The first BIP was by Amit Taaki in 2011, and was actually a BIP to make BIPs.
Miners vote on BIPs by including a reference to that BIP in the block that they mine.