Bitcoin Address types for Beginners

[casey15]

Hello Bitcointalkers....
 If you are very active in the crypto space, you would have come across a lot of bitcoin addresses and will discover that they are not usually the same... Some starts with "1" , some with "3" and others with "bc1" ... There is a reason for it...
While they look different, they are very compatible and you can transfer bitcoin seemlessly between them without issue...
 These are the types of bitcoin addressed

 

• LEGACY ADDRESS:

This is the original  Bitcoin address that was designed by Satoshi Nakamoto himself..so it is the oldest form of bitcoin address, it starts with "1"...
 The drawback of this address is that it takes up more space in the block which makes it require a higher transaction fee compared to other address types..

• SegWit(Segregated Witness) ADDRESS:

SegWit was introduced to modify how transaction data was structured and also to make transactions smaller and more efficient.. It does this by splitting the transaction in to two segment.  These address types offer lower transaction fee than Legacy addresses, the address starts with "3".

• Native SegWit ADDRESS:

This is the latest and the most efficient type of bitcoin address. It is also called Bech32 address. It was designed as an upgrade to the SegWit Address. Users of Bech32 addresses can identify incorrect characters in their transactions which enhance  safe and secure transactions. The transaction fee is lower than that of SegWit, which means that they have the lowest transaction fee of bitcoin transactions. They start with "bc1"...

      These addresses are compatible with each other so you don't have to worry about that, and if given the chance it is much better to choose the Native SegWit address as it will make it less expensive to transfer funds into your wallet..
   I will like to know what type of address y'all are using ....

[Solosanz]

The Importance of Identifying Different Type of Bitcoin Address

[rbynxx]

Here's a good cointelegraph article about it: https://cointelegraph.com/learn/articles/types-of-bitcoin-addresses

So far it's the native SegWit addresses that I like the most considering it really has lesser fees and improved. No wonder this will be the most favored choice by the many and it's the most used type of addresses afaik and probably used as default by many platforms including online casinos.

[casey15]

The Importance of Identifying Different Type of Bitcoin Address

Thank you so much for this... A lot of information are quite hidden.. sometimes when looking for old threads the search does not really bring out what I want.. or maybe I'm the one using it wrong

[Localhostspeed]

The Importance of Identifying Different Type of Bitcoin Address

Thank you so much for this... A lot of information are quite hidden.. sometimes when looking for old threads the search does not really bring out what I want.. or maybe I'm the one using it wrong

Anytime you are looking for information, don't rely on the forum search bar. If what's you are searching for isn't a sensitive information, you can always use Google to ask questions but you have to be logical about the way you do it.

For example, if I want to know everything about Bitcoin wallet address, what I do is input query as: "Bitcoin wallet address and their type, Bitcointalk" Google is going to return popular and most visited threads about Bitcoin wleg addresses. From such threads, you can see suggestions of other threads to learn further information. It's makes search easy.

[Charles-Tim]

The real segregated witness is native segwit while the other that start with 3 is called nested segwit and it was created for compatibility reason when some platforms did not support native segwit.

You did not include P2TR (pay-to-taproot) which is also segwit but version 1 while the native segwit you first described is the version 0.

[Obim34]

You can check out this thread also, Identifying Bitcoin Address By Format

Native Segwit begins with bc1q

Taproot Segwit begins with bc1p

Native SegWit ADDRESS:
They start with "bc1"...

It is crucial to spot the difference between each Segwit before spending, the p & q difference.

[notocactus]

LEGACY ADDRESS
SegWit(Segregated Witness) ADDRESS
Native SegWit ADDRESS

Segwit addresseses has Nested Segwit and Native Segwit.

Legacy Addresses (P2PKH): starts with 1.
Nested SegWit Addresses (P2SH): starts with 3.
Native SegWit Addresses (P2WPKH): starts with bc1 but it has bc1q. They are both bech32 addresses but bc1p with bc1p is for Taproot (P2TR).
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bech32_adoption

[Aanuoluwatofunmi]

snip

Op you made a nice presentation, but it could have been more interesting had it been you added some references and information further i explaining these types of addresses, just as you have gotten from the second reply embedded link provided, since the target here in on newbies to know the difference, secondly, it is also important that we make use of the search engine button to know whether a topic has been discussed or not before creating another, to avoid bugging the forum with spam post after they had been made already by other members.