What Is Segregated Witness (SegWit)

Binance announced adding SegWit support, aiming to improve Bitcoin transaction efficiency. And it will allow its users to withdraw or send their Bitcoin holdings to SegWit (bech32) addresses.

The term SegWit stands for “Segregated Witness”. SegWit is an improvement over the current bitcoin blockchain which reduces the size needed to store transactions in a block and it is implemented as a soft fork on the Bitcoin network. By separating the transaction signatures from bitcoin transactions, it allows more transactions to fit within one block. This will result in smooth and rapid Bitcoin transactions.

Learn more about SegWit, please refer to Binance Academy’s article: A Beginner’s Guide to SegWit

It’s important to note when you choose the network of Bitcoin SegWit to withdraw your BTC, make sure the corresponding platform or wallet supports SegWit. If you choose an unsupported network or incompatible assets, your funds will not be recoverable.

To learn more about how to deposit or withdraw funds, you may refer to the tutorial.

Please pay attention to choose the correct network when you transfer the funds. Not all wallets and exchanges support all 3 addresses.

Bitcoin Legacy address (P2pKH): After SegWit was introduced to the community, the original Bitcoin addresses are called “Legacy”. These addresses start with “1”.

SegWit or nested SegWit addresses(P2SH): These are multi-purpose addresses that support both non-SegWit and SegWit transactions. These addresses start with “3”.

Native Segwit(bech32): The native Segwit address starts with “bc1”. These addresses include only lower case letters for better readability.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can I use SegWit address send BTC from Binance to the original Bitcoin addresses？
Yes. SegWit is backward compatible with previous Bitcoin addresses. You can safely send transactions to any external Bitcoin address or wallet. However, make sure the corresponding exchange or wallet supports SegWit(bech32). If you choose an unsupported network or incompatible assets, your funds will be lost.

2. Does SegWit allow me to send other assets besides Bitcoin to my BTC SegWit address?

No. Digital assets sent to the wrong currency address will result in the permanent loss of those assets.