Portfolio
Home/Glossary/SegWit
Protocol

SegWit

Soft fork activated in August 2017 that separates signatures from the transaction body and increases the effective block capacity.

Definition

SegWit (Segregated Witness) is an upgrade to the Bitcoin protocol activated in August 2017 via BIP 141. It moves signature (witness) data outside the main body of the transaction, increasing the effective block capacity to nearly 4 MB and eliminating a historic type of transaction malleability. SegWit was the technical prerequisite for building Lightning Network and paved the way for Taproot four years later. Today, virtually all institutional custody addresses use SegWit or Taproot formats.

Read this term in Spanish: versión en español →

Corporate Bitcoin, explained every week

Definitions, data and analysis on treasuries, ETFs and preferreds in your inbox. No spam.