Segregated Witness Activates on Bitcoin: This is What to Expect

[krishnapramod]

Segwit is finally activated. Bitcoin blocks can now be up to 4 MB, though 2 MB is a more realistic maximum.

However, this doesn’t mean that all blocks will immediately bump to 2 megabytes in size today. For a transaction to utilize the added space, it must be sent from a SegWit address (or more accurately, a Segwit “output”) — not just to a SegWit address.

Wallets and other applications need to be ready to accept SegWit transactions.

Some wallets, like GreenAddress, may offer this option on day one, or shortly thereafter. Similarly, large Bitcoin service providers could start accepting SegWit transactions right away, though some may need more time to prepare. BitGo, a Bitcoin infrastructure provider for major exchanges like Bitstamp, Kraken and OKCoin, expects to be SegWit-ready relatively soon as well.

https://bitcoincore.org/en/segwit_adoption/

Lightning and other implementations.

Arguably even more highly anticipated than an increased block size, second-layer technologies like the Lightning Network or, further out, Merkelized Abstract Syntax Trees (MAST), will be more easily built on top of Bitcoin. Most of this technology is still a work in progress, and it could take several more months before regular users are expected to use it. That said, it is likely that there will be experimentation on Bitcoin’s mainnet rather soon.

Version 0.3 alpha of Lightning Network Daemon software was released yesterday, which is the last major release before mainnet beta release.

And even when the Lightning Network is functional and in use, it will take a little longer to roll out more advanced features that utilize the Lightning Network or similar protocols. These include atomic swaps, which allows for the instant and (near) costless exchange of cryptocurrencies over different blockchains, like bitcoin and litecoin.

Further, more nuanced benefits of SegWit, such as faster transaction signing by hardware wallets, will be available within a matter of days.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/segregated-witness-activates-bitcoin-what-expect/

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[craZyLovE0916]

Segwit is finally activated. Bitcoin blocks can now be up to 4 MB, though 2 MB is a more realistic maximum.

However, this doesn’t mean that all blocks will immediately bump to 2 megabytes in size today. For a transaction to utilize the added space, it must be sent from a SegWit address (or more accurately, a Segwit “output”) — not just to a SegWit address.

Wallets and other applications need to be ready to accept SegWit transactions.

Some wallets, like GreenAddress, may offer this option on day one, or shortly thereafter. Similarly, large Bitcoin service providers could start accepting SegWit transactions right away, though some may need more time to prepare. BitGo, a Bitcoin infrastructure provider for major exchanges like Bitstamp, Kraken and OKCoin, expects to be SegWit-ready relatively soon as well.

https://bitcoincore.org/en/segwit_adoption/

Lightning and other implementations.

Arguably even more highly anticipated than an increased block size, second-layer technologies like the Lightning Network or, further out, Merkelized Abstract Syntax Trees (MAST), will be more easily built on top of Bitcoin. Most of this technology is still a work in progress, and it could take several more months before regular users are expected to use it. That said, it is likely that there will be experimentation on Bitcoin’s mainnet rather soon.

Version 0.3 alpha of Lightning Network Daemon software was released yesterday, which is the last major release before mainnet beta release.

And even when the Lightning Network is functional and in use, it will take a little longer to roll out more advanced features that utilize the Lightning Network or similar protocols. These include atomic swaps, which allows for the instant and (near) costless exchange of cryptocurrencies over different blockchains, like bitcoin and litecoin.

Further, more nuanced benefits of SegWit, such as faster transaction signing by hardware wallets, will be available within a matter of days.

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/segregated-witness-activates-bitcoin-what-expect/

Recently I have read that bigger blocks isn't good. What we need is the lightning network, NOT Segwit. Although I don't know why big blocks is bad though.

[pooya87]

Segwit is finally activated. Bitcoin blocks can now be up to 4 MB, though 2 MB is a more realistic maximum.

However, this doesn’t mean that all blocks will immediately bump to 2 megabytes in size today. For a transaction to utilize the added space, it must be sent from a SegWit address (or more accurately, a Segwit “output”) — not just to a SegWit address.

this part is going to be something like the compressed/uncompressed keys in my opinion.
the old compressed keys decreases the signature size by ~18% and yet you can see the uncompressed keys still being used.
it is a slow transition because people have to upgrade their wallets, transfer funds to new keys and start using SegWit then. but we will get there.

[Vanester2014]

Personaly i was expecting in this segwit that the bitcoins transactions will go faster and cheaper thats all we always request because the price of transaction now is too expensive and too slow it takes a haft hour to 1 hour or sometimes more hours to sent a single transaction

[krishnapramod]

Recently I have read that bigger blocks isn't good. What we need is the lightning network, NOT Segwit. Although I don't know why big blocks is bad though.

There are a few reasons why bigger blocks are bad. In this context, Segwit is a block size increase, but without a hard fork. Segwit is a soft fork which increases the block size by allowing more transactions to fit inside a block. Segwit removes transaction malleability and this makes LN implementation possible. Segwit alone isn't a scalability solution, you need additional second-layer solutions and for these additional implementations you need Segwit.

https://bitcoincore.org/en/2016/01/26/segwit-benefits/

Does Lightning require Segregated Witness?

Yes, but not in theory. You could make a poorer lightning network without it, which has higher risks when establishing channels (you might have to wait a month if things go wrong!), has limited channel lifetime, longer minimum payment expiry times on each hop, is less efficient and has less robust outsourcing. The entire spec as written today assumes segregated witness, as it solves all these problems.

https://medium.com/@rusty_lightning/bitcoin-lightning-things-to-know-e5ea8d84369f

[MAbtc]

Recently I have read that bigger blocks isn't good. What we need is the lightning network, NOT Segwit. Although I don't know why big blocks is bad though.

Yeah, I never liked the block size increase brought by Segwit. But it was crafted as a compromise with big blockers, I suppose. The superior UTXO spending incentives and other optimizations largely mitigate the risks of increasing the block size, but the increase wasn't necessary IMO. Big blocks = more data to propagate. This encourages miner centralization because it increases orphaning risk. It also encourages node centralization because it makes operating a node more taxing.

[Kakmakr]

It looks like we going to ease into SegWit much slower than what I anticipated. If all these services has to switch over for it to be "compatible" then we are not going to see a simple "cut over" transition to SegWit. I would have hoped that these services would have been "SegWit-ready" before activation. ^sad^

Oh well, let's see how this goes, we have been waiting long enough already. ^hmmmmm^

[dothebeats]

I'm excited to see as to how lightning network would do in real time. Demonstration of the tech seems to be okay, but how would it do handling loads of transactions in real-time? Also--given that I'm not a very techie person so pardon me with this question--do we really need LN given that the block size can now be pushed to a maximum of 4 MB? What would be the added benefits of LN to SegWit?

[DoublerHunter]

So the segwit is activated in bitcoin and i think it will be a crazy energizer for the price of bitcoin and it can pump the price very high. Segwit is one of the reason why litecoin got very high on its price and that is not far for bitcoin to happen also so expect some huge price rally for bitcoin that can be up to 10,000 USD.

[Yuhee]

So i guess i have to wait some time for other sites to activate or to fully utilize the segwit in there transaction. I have not seen bittrex in the list? Or are they accepted but not enlisted on that list? I saw some exchange that are already to accept segwit transaction but most of them are unfamiliar to me. Bitfinex, bittrex and kraken are some sites im popular with but it seems they might still be on the process for the activation. I havent tried transacting because of those sites, but hopely i will read positive comments in the forum.

[krishnapramod]

I'm excited to see as to how lightning network would do in real time. Demonstration of the tech seems to be okay, but how would it do handling loads of transactions in real-time? Also--given that I'm not a very techie person so pardon me with this question--do we really need LN given that the block size can now be pushed to a maximum of 4 MB? What would be the added benefits of LN to SegWit?

Segwit is an onchain capacity increase up to a maximum of 4 MB, but the average limit is 2 MB. LN is an offchain scaling solution which offers instant transactions, microtransactions, low fee. On chain/segwit would slightly lower the fee and faster confirmations, but still instant microtransactions wouldn't be possible, for that you need LN.

LN is an additional layer, optional, if you want to make instant transaction then you can opt for LN, otherwise stick to onchain transaction.

[Carlsen]

This might be a silly question... but shouldn't we see something?
I mean, segwit is now active, but where is the difference?
The size of the mined blocks still looks as big as before, the mempool is as full as it was, too.
The only thing that I can notify is that one little dwarf block with 0.3kb size.
Does this all take more time? Or is segwit working perfectly and I just don't get it?

[Pursuer]

the biggest thing to expect is a faster and much easier growth now that the scaling debate is finally coming to an end. it is nearly over now. and that was one of the biggest reasons for keeping bitcoin back, all the debates all the spam attacks and all the high transaction fees. these are mostly over now (more or less). and we can only move on from this.

This might be a silly question... but shouldn't we see something?
I mean, segwit is now active, but where is the difference?
The size of the mined blocks still looks as big as before, the mempool is as full as it was, too.
The only thing that I can notify is that one little dwarf block with 0.3kb size.
Does this all take more time? Or is segwit working perfectly and I just don't get it?

people need to start using SegWit for it to become effective. and that takes time. all the things about the mempool and the block size are still going to be the same. and that 0.3 kB block is a normal thing that happens.