The new major Bitcoin Core client version,
released for public editing Feb. 15, includes full Segregated Witness (‘SegWit’) support
for the first time, among a host of other upgrades.
The description of Bitcoin Core 0.16.0 on Github
promises “new features, various bugfixes and performance
improvements” of which SegWit support is the conspicuous
headliner.
Demand for SegWit technology, which for the end user
will mean reduced transaction processing wait times, has exploded
since its launch in August 2017.
Major Bitcoin wallet providers and payment processors
have conversely been slow to implement it, leading to
anger from consumers who
considered they were paying — and waiting — over the odds, when on
a technological level this was unnecessary.
As a popular option for helping scale the Bitcoin
network, SegWit is being joined by increasing interest in so-called
‘Layer 2’ solutions, principally the Lightning Network.
Last week, Microsoft threw its weight behind the
latter option, at the same time decrying alternative ‘on-chain’
scaling methods such as bigger block sizes as “degrading
decentralization”.
“Bitcoin Core 0.16.0 introduces full support for
segwit in the wallet and user interfaces,” the Bitcoin Core
Github description confirms.
Other new features revolve around technical
flexibility, while lesser tweaks include features such as reference
to “bits” instead of “µBTC”, reflecting an increasing aim to appeal
to less technical users.
When asked to name the most notable feature of Bitcoin
Core version 0.16.0 and how it will affect users, Jimmy Song,
Bitcoin core developer and venture partner at Blockchain Capital,
told Cointelegraph:
“Native segwit support (bech32) is going to get much
more adoption as a result of this update. This will reduce block
bloat and encourage more wallets in the ecosystem to adopt
bech32.”
By
William Suberg