Help understand risks and implications of SegWit to Bitcoin users

[POliveira]

Hi there,

I would like to ask the community's help to understand what are the implications and risks of adopting SegWit (addresses) from the point of view of the non-technical average Bitcoin user.

From my research, I've almost only found technical discussions on SegWit's merit for the Bitcoin network and ecosystem as a whole (including different points of view such as users, miners and investors). Other than that, everything seems to indicate there are only pros in adopting SegWit addresses and I haven't found a single source stating users shouldn't use SegWit addresses.

So I'm looking for concrete reasons why regular users should, but mostly why they should not start using SegWit addresses.

Thank you.

[1714465431]

1714465431

[1714465431]

1714465431

[1714465431]

1714465431

[1714465431]

1714465431

[AdolfinWolf]

Hi there,

I would like to ask the community's help to understand what are the implications and risks of adopting SegWit (addresses) from the point of view of the non-technical average Bitcoin user.

From my research, I've almost only found technical discussions on SegWit's merit for the Bitcoin network and ecosystem as a whole (including different points of view such as users, miners and investors). Other than that, everything seems to indicate there are only pros in adopting SegWit addresses and I haven't found a single source stating users shouldn't use SegWit addresses.

So I'm looking for concrete reasons why regular users should, but mostly why they should not start using SegWit addresses.

Thank you.

This article gave me personally a lot of insight in the situation, check it out, https://medium.com/the-publius-letters/segregated-witness-a-fork-too-far-87d6e57a4179


Some of the biggest opposers of segwit, https://medium.com/@zhangsanbtc/why-we-must-oppose-cores-segwit-soft-fork-bitcoin-miner-jiang-zhuo-er-tells-you-why-28f820d51f98

Also, if you're interested in reading some more, https://bitcoinclassic.com/devel/FlexTrans-vs-SegWit.html Some people are mad about segwit because there are better options already out there, some argue that it is "Flextrans".

segregating the signatures is convoluted, the extension blocks must still be propagated and kept.

4meg for basically nothing

sosialistic price control of segwit transactions

malleability is not really fixed

huge risk

the straightforward, common sense, safe option is to just allow larger blocks.

Something which is also quite interesting, https://calvinayre.com/2017/06/19/bitcoin/risks-segregated-witness-opening-door-mining-cartels-undermine-bitcoin-network/ A bit dated but still a good read.

[POliveira]

@AdolfinWolf

While I appreciate your answer and effort to give me nice references, I'm afraid it falls within this technical debate I was mentioning. Sure it explains the SegWit feature, its benefits and its shortcomings.

However, I'm looking for the perspective of the bitcoin user.

For a bitcoin user, who transacts btc, is it safe to use SegWit? Is he incurring in any risk by using SegWit addresses? If so, what are the risks?

Thank you again,