Segregated Witness, or SegWit, is the name used for an implemented soft fork change in the transaction format of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin which has also been implemented on currencies such as Litecoin, DigiByte and Vertcoin.
The formal title “Segregated Witness (Consensus layer)” had Bitcoin Improvement Proposal number BIP141 The purpose was to solve malleability. It was also intended to mitigate a blockchain size limitation problem that reduces Bitcoin transaction speed.
It does this by splitting the transaction into two segments, removing the unlocking signature (“witness” data) from the original portion and appending it as a separate structure at the end.
The original section would continue to hold the sender and receiver data, and the new “witness” structure would contain scripts and signatures. The original data segment would be counted normally, but the “witness” segment would, in effect, be counted as a quarter of its real size.
The latest desktop version (1.63) of Brave Wallet introduces Native SegWit Bitcoin accounts, a cutting-edge feature that offers users lower transaction fees and enhanced error detection capabilities.
The sustained growth of the BTC blockchain in the last four years may be attributed to the introduction of scaling solution SegWit, which effectively doubled block sizes to two megabytes.
BitPay has added adds a range of new features to its apps, including SegWit functionality, Coinbase integration, and fiat-crypto purchases via Simplex.
Recently Peter Wuille introduced a new smart contract language for the Bitcoin code called Miniscript. Peter, who is known for creating the SegWit code, says he has been working on this for about a year.
Recently, a crypto whale, Loaded, moved $212M worth of bitcoins within a short time freely. This is likely to challenge banks that set so many restrictions when moving large amounts.
To allow its clients to pay less for Bitcoin transactions, CoinDeal offers them to use Bech32 (SegWit Native) addresses.
The total number of active nodes on Lightning Network,the most exciting development in the whole blockchain ecosystem, has crossed 2,000, while its total network capacity has passed $150,000.
With the ongoing speed of the development of Lightning Network, analysts believe that the official release of the first version of the mainnet can occur anytime soon.
Soon after the full-SegWit support in the Bitcoin software update, the Bitcoin transactions using SegWit have doubled in just past two days.
The Full-SegWit support to the Core Bitcoin software has been officially confirmed by core developer Peter Todd.
Coinbase and GDAX have adopted SegWit, which means that all their users will soon have an opportunity to enjoy lower fees and faster Bitcoin transactions.
Bitfinex and Coinbase now support SegWit. Bitcoin investors can expect to see lower fees and faster processing times, but please remember that SegWit has been implemented for Bitcoin only, and not Bitcoin Cash.
In a few weeks, Coinbase will offer their customers an update on Bitcoin SegWit which is expected to improve transaction capacity of the Bitcoin network.
LUXCORE is a unique Enterprise focused Blockchain Ecosystem and it’s open source public blockchain asset, LuxCoin has the potential to become a leading cryptocurrency due to the implementation of new features including Smart Contracts and SegWit aimed at enhancing the blockchain’s usability and transaction speeds.
In a fresh new twist in the plans of SegWit2x hard fork, there is every possibility for the hard fork to go through in the near time.