Upgrade legacy Wallet to native SegWit-Bech32

[potl]

Hi,

I'm getting these notices when I do a transaction:

> This transaction could save 36% on fees by upgrading to native SegWit-Bech32
> or 26% by upgrading to SegWit-P2SH

Which makes sense because I have an old wallet.

I'm confused because I can't find a simple Guide how to actually do this.
Many ppl recommend creating a new (SegWit-Bech32) walltet and transfering all funds to the new wallet. But don't I need to pay fees for such transaction (given I want to slice my funds into smaller chunks )?
Is there a better way ?

Thanks for any hints.

[OmegaStarScream]

You can't simply convert your addresses to SegWit addresses, and not move them anywhere. You would need to transfer them to a SegWit address, whether you decide to use the same seedphrase as your current wallet, or create a completely new one.

[Charles-Tim]

This transaction could save 36% on fees by upgrading to native SegWit-Bech32

Comparing it with legacy address, you can save up to 42% or more.

Many ppl recommend creating a new (SegWit-Bech32) walltet and transfering all funds to the new wallet. But don't I need to pay fees for such transaction (given I want to slice my funds into smaller chunks )?

You will need to pay money for fee.

OmegaStarScream has given you the right answer. You will need a new wallet for it or you can import the old seed phrase to a wallet that support native segwit and send you coins there. But why not just generate a new seed phrase instead which is what I would like to go for.

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

But don't I need to pay fees for such transaction (given I want to slice my funds into smaller chunks )?
Is there a better way ?

You will need to pay the miners fee. This is not the right time to move the coins as the mempool congestion is super high. You need to wait for the mining fees to reduce to almost nothing like 1 to 5 vMB.

[hosseinimr93]

You would need to transfer them to a SegWit address, whether you decide to use the same seedphrase as your current wallet, or create a completely new one.

In the case OP has generated the seed phrase using electrum itself, there is no way to generate segwit addresses from the same seed phrase as the current wallet.
You can generate different type of addresses from a seed phrase, only if it's BIP39. Since OP has made this topic on electrum board, I assume the seed phrase has been generated using electrum.

You need to wait for the mining fees to reduce to almost nothing like 1 to 5 vMB.

You probably meant 1 to 5 sat/vbyte, not vMB.

[potl]

Ok, thanks, I think I got it now !

[Cricktor]

OP, consider to postpone the transfer of your funds from legacy addresses to a native segwit wallet because currently transaction fees are at a crazy high level. It may take some days or weeks or (worse) months until this Runes hype bullshit hopefully fades out. Let's hope that people jumping on that scam train will come to their mind.

Current low priority fee level of ~460 sat/vB and high priority rate of ~800 sat/vB is simply absurd.

[FinneysTrueVision]

It might not be cost efficient to switch from legacy to native segwit at the present moment because the fees to move your Bitcoin would be too high to be offset by your future fee savings. You can transition gradually — whenever you need to make an on-chain transaction, you can have the change sent to a segwit address, you can also make sure to receive any new payments to your segwit wallet. Eventually, when the fees get low enough you can sweep what remains in your legacy wallet to your segwit wallet.

[nc50lc]

Many ppl recommend creating a new (SegWit-Bech32) walltet and transfering all funds to the new wallet. But don't I need to pay fees for such transaction (given I want to slice my funds into smaller chunks )?
Is there a better way ?

Slicing it in smaller "chunks" or UTXO/coins would only lead with higher fee in your next transactions if each of those coins aren't enough to pay your usual transactions.
You should go for a small number of big value chunks to make sure that your transactions will only use one or two input(s) at a time.

As for (kinda) free transfer to a new SegWit wallet, do this in your next payment.
Use 'Send' tab setting's (upper-right icon) "Pay to many" option and fill the Pay to field in the format below.
example:

Code:

recipient_address,0.0001
your_OWN_SegWit_Address,!

That way, all the remaining non-frozen coins (amount = !) from the wallet will be sent to your SegWit address instead of that legacy wallet's change address.
So you only paid for the payment's transaction fee and the transfer to your new wallet is basically free.

Make sure to double-triple-check the address to make sure that it will be sent to your new SegWit Electrum wallet.

[Cricktor]

It depends on what OP wants to achieve when he moves his funds to a new native segwit wallet. As nc50lc points out, there's an advantage when you have fewer but larger UTXOs (coin chunks) in your new wallet. Later transfers deducted from larger UTXOs have the disadvantage to reveal how much you have to the recipient of your transaction. This might not be desirable.

There's always some sort of trade-off and it depends on if you can now predict a good segmentation of your UTXOs for later transfers. The moment you have to use two native segwit inputs for your transfer, it will be more expensive than a single legacy input, iirc (assuming standard two outputs).

[BitcoinGirl.Club]

You need to wait for the mining fees to reduce to almost nothing like 1 to 5 vMB.

You probably meant 1 to 5 sat/vbyte, not vMB.

Yes, you are right.

Ok, thanks, I think I got it now !

Mempool congestion is still high and I do not think you will have any good news in the next few weeks.