Bitfinex Adds Bitcoin Bech32 Support — Hints at Lightning Network Next

Published at: Nov. 4, 2019

Major global crypto exchange Bitfinex now supports Bitcoin (BTC) bech32 addresses generation and deposits to bech32 addresses. Following the launch of Bitcoin withdrawals on bech32 addresses on Oct. 29, Bitfinex officially announced on Nov. 4 that the exchange now also supports Bitcoin deposits to bech32.

As previously announced, a bech32 Bitcoin address is a Segregated Witness (SegWit) address format specified by Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 0173. Also known as "bc1 addresses,” bech32 format starts with the alphanumeric characters bc1 and consists only of lowercase letters, making each address not case-sensitive.

This updated address format provides better protection against typing errors and thus fixes transaction malleability. Moreover, SegWit increases the maximum block size limit, effectively increasing transaction capacity and lowering fees.

Interoperability with platforms not supporting bech32

Bitfinex notes that the introduction of bech32 addresses shows its commitment to speeding up the adoption of SegWit as well as developing and scaling Bitcoin.

As bech32 format is not supported by all the exchanges, Bitfinex's traders will have the option to use either the original Pay to Script Hash (P2SH) SegWit deposit address or native SegWit bech32 address, the firm stated.

Additionally, Bitfinex also hinted at adding support of the Lightning Network (LN) soon. Commenting on the news, Bitfinex’s CTO Paolo Ardoino seemingly referenced LN as a “Little Nice” thing in a tweet on Nov. 4:

“Now there is only one Little Nice thing left for us to develop…”

SegWit-spending BTC transactions hit 57%

The news follows the recent uptick in SegWit-spending Bitcoin transactions on the network to over half of the total. Implemented as a major Bitcoin protocol upgrade in August 2017 to optimize block space usage.

According to transactionfee.info statistics, the percentage of SegWit transactions has hit an all-time high of 57.7% on Oct. 8 and currently at 52.2%.

Percentage of SegWit-spending Bitcoin payments. Source: transactionfee.info

Tags
Adoption
Bitcoin
Scalability
Bitfinex
Segwit
Related Posts
Bitfinex Allows Lightning Network Shopping on Bitrefill With Bitcoin
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and crypto store Bitrefill partnered to allow the trading platform’s clients to shop with Bitcoin (BTC) over the Lightning Network. According to a press release published on Dec. 4, Bitfinex users can instantly pay for a variety of services with Bitcoin that they hold on the exchange as of today. A Lightning B2B settlement system Per the press release, the companies attribute the development to the “world’s first dynamic B2B settlement process over the Lightning Network.” The announcement builds on recent news that Bitfinex enabled Bitcoin Lightning Network transactions and that those using it for deposits and …
Adoption / Dec. 4, 2019
Bitcoin transaction fees briefly doubled yet remain exceptionally low
Got some Satoshi to send or Bitcoin (BTC) wallets to reorganize? It’s increasingly cheap to do so. According to an Arcane Research report, Bitcoin “transaction fees have stayed low since July 2021, showing no signs of rising.” There was, however, a small bump in transaction fees last week. Shown as a small jump at the tail end of the graph, clustering of the mempool pushed “up the average transaction fees per day over the past seven days to $691,000, a doubling since last Tuesday.” Nonetheless, the doubling in transaction fees is insignificant: transaction fees remained in a low range. Miners …
Adoption / March 9, 2022
Cryptocurrency Exchange BitMEX Enables Native SegWit Support
Cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX added support for native segregated witness (SegWit) addresses for Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals, which lets users pay lower transaction fees. According to an announcement on Dec. 12, BitMEX now allows its users to withdraw Bitcoin to Bech32 addresses, the one that natively supports the segregated witness standard. Bitcoin address formats As the announcement explains, the Bitcoin network currently supports three address formats. The first one — Bitcoin’s original address format — is pay to public key hash (P2PKH), which starts with a 1. The second format is the pay to script hash (P2SH), which allows users to send …
Blockchain / Dec. 12, 2019
Making sense of the Bitfinex Bitcoin billions
It’s the Netflix script that wrote itself. A story so outlandish, it’s stunned the crypto community; an industry accustomed to apparent suicides in Spanish jail cells and nonfungible token auctions for dead rappers. The plot involves the United States Department of Justice (DoJ), a crypto exchange with a checkered history, a rapper-cum-Forbes magazine writer, a voucher to buy a new PlayStation, an occasional magician and $4 billion worth of Bitcoin (BTC). The alleged Bitfinex hack money launderers have kept the internet enraptured since the larger-than-life story emerged last week. It’s no wonder that Netflix has actually announced that they will …
Adoption / Feb. 16, 2022
Tether is an ‘instrument of freedom’ and 'Bitcoin onramp,’ says Tether CTO
On a sun-splashed day in the Swiss Alps, the chief technology officer of Bitfinex and Tether, Paolo Ardoino, shed light on the Plan B Lugano strategy, Tether as an onramp into Bitcoin (BTC) and —crucially — his favorite pizza toppings. Fresh off the plane from Norway, where Ardoino attended an increasingly Bitcoiner-friendly event, the Oslo Freedom Forum, the Italian explained that, in contrast to the WEF,there was no “shilling” in Norway. Tether was invited to speak at the Oslo Freedom Forum as the stablecoin is increasingly considered an “instrument of freedom.” Tether has been adopted by the Myanmar government while …
Adoption / June 9, 2022