Blockchain.com has activated SegWit on our web wallet and mobile app
Earlier this year, Blockchain.com
announced support for Segregated Witness (SegWit). Now, we are pleased to announce that we have officially activated the upgrade: SegWit is live across our web wallet and mobile applications. This means lower fees on your Bitcoin transactions now and in the future. This activation does not affect how you actually send or receive Bitcoin; it’s an update to how the transactions process in the background on the blockchain.
SegWit in a nutshell
When lots of people try to send Bitcoin simultaneously, the queue of transactions gets congested, causing high transaction fees. SegWit solves this issue by creating more space in each block and allowing for more transactions at a time, leading to lower fees. It gets its name from the process that actually creates the space: separating (or “segregating”) the digital signature (also known as “the witness”) from the transaction.
Impact on the Bitcoin ecosystem
Since Blockchain.com users generate roughly 30% of the transactions on the entire Bitcoin blockchain, rolling out SegWit to our user base means an upgrade for the efficiency of the entire network.
How To Get Started
To start experiencing the benefits of SegWit, simply start transacting with your Bitcoin today. If the Bitcoin address on the receive screen begins with ‘bc1’, congratulations, your wallet now supports SegWit! If you are on your mobile device, make sure you’re running the latest version of Blockchain.com Wallet, available in the App Store and Google Play.