SegWit Transactions in Bitcoin Hit 30% For First Time

Wilma Woo · February 28, 2018 · 12:00 pm

SegWit usage on the bitcoin network has hit 30% in a new all-time high sparked by uptake from major industry businesses and services.

High-speed, Low-fee bitcoin Emerges

Citing data from cryptocurrency hardware wallet manufacturer Trezor, investor and commentator Alistair Milne noted the historic highs continue to come in tandem with an almost empty mempool, leading to rock-bottom bitcoin transaction fees.

SegWit usage continues to skyrocket, hitting 30% for the first time#bitcoinpic.twitter.com/OEexWND9ab

— Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) February 28, 2018

The size of unprocessed transaction fees making up the mempool had expanded and fallen in dramatic cycles over the past year, leading to significant variation on transaction fee requirements.

On Wednesday, the recommended fee rate was 20 satoshis per byte according to Earn.com. That rate had previously been over 1000 satoshis.

February Becomes SegWit’s Big Debut

SegWit received a major boost this month after the largest US wallet provider Coinbase debuted the feature, just days after fellow exchange Bitfinex.

At the same time, bitcoin Core developers released the latest version of their client, 0.16.0 providing “full support” for SegWit as its top feature.

Other businesses have also followed suit to get on board, notably alternative wallet Edge (previously known as Airbitz).

While Coinbase’s decision will likely placate many users frustrated by high fees, it is the bitcoin Core implementation that holds the most exciting potential for the bitcoin network going forward.

While not essential for so-called Layer 2 improvements to bitcoin, SegWit lays the foundation for a raft of further network upgrades which, despite their current experimental nature, could revolutionize the end user experience.

In particular, the Lightning Network (LN) continues to gain both popularity and support from notable entities including Microsoft, which in February publicly pledged research commitments.

While bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd became the latest critic of LN’s untested mainnet use this week, the enthusiasm behind off-chain scaling for bitcoin to improve its utility as a currency remains ever-present.

What do you think about SegWit’s rising popularity? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter

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Published at Wed, 28 Feb 2018 17:00:11 +0000

bitcoin

April 6, 2017

Litecoin Price Tops $11 Amid SegWit Euphoria, Coinbase Support

With Litecoin’s price rallying and SegWit activation around the corner, bitcoin’s baby brother may soon be added to Coinbase.

Litecoin on Coinbase

Litecoin is the currently on the center stage of the blockchain sphere as the activation of SegWit becomes imminent and the price rallies to heights not seen since 2014. Now, it seems like Litecoin may become the second alternative cryptocurrency to be added to Coinbase, following Ethereum.

A recent Twitter conversation between Charlie Lee, founder of Litecoin and Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, reveals that both want to see Litecoin added to Coinbase so that users can easily buy the altcoin with national currencies.

@SatoshiLite @GDAX @coinbase I'm in – lets do it!

— Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) April 6, 2017

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Although Litecoin trades on the GDAX exchange which belongs to Coinbase, adding it to the main Coinbase platform is a much more relevant step for LTC given that Coinbase is meant for the mainstream audience that is now entering the cryptocurrency scene, while GDAX is a platform for experienced traders. The addition of Litecoin to Coinbase will, as so, make it much easier for users to acquire it with fiat currencies.

Earlier this month, Coinbase received an approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to offer its customers the option of trading both Litecoin and Ether, making it the first NY-based exchange to offer both Litecoin and Ethereum markets.

SegWit may be coming for Litecoin

The argument used by Charlie Lee to get Litecoin into Coinbase is that Litecoin’s trading volume in GDAX was above $10M for the day, which was caused by the rally experienced yesterday in which Litecoin gained over 20% in value, going as high as $12.70.

The reason for the surge in value is connected to the imminent activation of SegWit. Miner approval went as high as 65% yesterday (on the last 576 blocks at the time) and it’s currently sitting at 68%.

Once (if) the 75% mining approval threshold for SegWit activation is reached, miner approval will need to stay above this figure for two weeks (8064 blocks) in order to be activated. If SegWit is in fact activated in Litecoin, the following days/weeks could prove crucial for bitcoin’s future, as Litecoin leads the way as a scalability testbed for bitcoin. If the price increases tremendously, miners may be tempted to support SegWit with an increase in the mining revenue in mind.

Who is and Isn’t Signaling SegWit?

While some of the biggest Litecoin mining pools are signaling their support for SegWit, like F2Pool (34%), Batpool (11.6%), HappyChina (9.8%) and others, some refuse to change their position. Most notably, LTC1BTC which is the second biggest Litecoin mining pool in the market.

Jiang Zhuoer, founder of LTC1BTC said in an interview that LTC1BTC would not signal SegWit approval and he added that no other primary Litecoin pool would, which turned out to be incorrect.

Currently, only LTC1BTC (11.8%),BW (11%), Antpool (2.6%), LTC.top (2.4%) and Prohashing (1.4%) are not signaling for SegWit. It seems unlikely that Antpool and Prohashing will change to support SegWit, given their opposition to SegWit and support for bitcoin Unlimited.

Now, it all comes down to BW. Although it’s unclear what BW’s position on the matter is, we can expect an update to be released according to a recent tweet by the pool:

@stevepartos this is currently under consideration. An update will be announced in the near future. Thanks for your interest in BW.

— bw.com (@www_bw_com) April 5, 2017

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With BW’s 11% share of the Litecoin mining network, SegWit will most likely be activated.

Will BW move to activate SegWit, allowing Litecoin to be the first SegWit-enabled cryptocurrency? Would this help bitcoin’s case for SegWit? Let us know what you think in the comment section.

Images courtesy of CryptoCompare, Segwit.co, Litecoinpool, Shutterstock

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