(SegWit) which stands
for Segregated Witness is a special code/tech introduced in bitcoin to lighten
and boast bitcoin support, usability/transactions
This bitcoin code change is focused on scaling the network and
to paves the way for a new layer for the tech that's potentially faster and
cheaper.
After months of controversial play in 2017, SegWit was
activated in the month of August 2017, since then, it has been spurring
developers to put together a more structured, "themed" release for
the software, an unusual development for the team behind the world's oldest and
most valuable cryptocurrency network.
Most of the time when Bitcoin Core introduces new changes to
the cryptocurrency's code, the loose group of volunteer developers simply
combine disparate optimizations together. But this coming code release, 0.16.0,
the sixteenth "major release" since bitcoin began, is a bit
different.
Set to launch in the coming days, the updates all revolve
around SegWit - with most focusing on making it easier to send SegWit-style
transactions from the software's default wallet.
While the first software rollout of SegWit was about making
sure the network understood the new rules, 0.16.0 is all about making it
possible for users to take advantage of their benefits.
The major change is
the addition of SegWit in the wallet. Which allows users to easily create SegWit
addresses.
SegWit galore
Toward that goal, Chow explained that SegWit features have
been added to both the command line set and the wallet user interface, so both
programmers and non-programmers can use it.
Chaincode Lab engineer and Bitcoin Core contributor Marco
Falke noted that while it was possible to create SegWit addresses in prior
wallet versions, the process was "rather hacky" and "mostly
hidden."
Now, though, with the software release, SegWit addresses
will be the default, meaning that new addresses are automatically compatible
with the scaling feature.
Version 0.16.0 is also the first release to support
"native SegWit addresses," also called bech32 addresses, a new
address format pioneered by Bitcoin Core contributors Pieter Wuille and Greg Maxwell
that's more user-friendly than older addresses types and supports SegWit
automatically.
According to Falke, "That is the most exciting part of
the release."
With SegWit addresses being created automatically, wallet
users should soon experience lower fees. And progress there could have wider
implications.
Bitcoin Core first introduced SegWit in November 2016, and
the battle that followed prompted some software users to support a competing
cryptocurrency that did away with it altogether. (Called bitcoin cash, the
network's supporters have long argued that bigger blocks, in which more space
is allotted for transactions, is the key to lower fees.)
According to Chow, one advantage of the native SegWit
address format is that fees are a bit lower, although he acknowledged that
because the format is so new, most wallets don't currently support it.
Chow said that other pieces of the release give users more
flexibility over their Bitcoin Core wallet. For example, users can store their
wallets, or private keys, in another data directory if they want to.
Long time coming
Stepping back, the release could also help with SegWit's
sometimes troubled messaging, as its adoption has been perhaps slower than
anticipated by advocates.
Indeed, while updating the code of a global software program
perhaps shouldn't necessarily be a fast process, users have complained because
even some major companies have yet to adopt it.
With this backdrop of user anticipation and impatience in
mind, many might be surprised that it's taken Bitcoin Core so long to add
support in its wallet for the transaction type. But developers contend there
are a couple reasons for the delay.
First, the team says it wanted to see how SegWit actually
worked on the network for a bit before supporting it, in case there were
security vulnerabilities or other concerns, said Chow. Second, politics were a
distraction as well.
While the software release before this one,
0.15.1, was supposed to boost the wallet's support of SegWit, developers claim
a planned alternative bitcoin software launch, scheduled for November 2016, is
partly blame for delaying the focus and redirecting efforts
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