15/11/2017
1️⃣What is Segregated Witness?
Segregated Witness, often abbreviated to SegWit, is a proposed update to the Bitcoin software, designed to fix a range of serious issues.
It is developed by its long-standing team. Bitcoin Core is currently the most popular Bitcoin reference client, in use by the majority of the businesses in the industry.
Originally, the update was aimed at solving transaction malleability, a well-known weak spot in Bitcoin software. Although this vector of attack is not the most damaging to the users, it has been exploited in several instances already, highlighting the need to patch it.
However, SegWit offers a range of other advantages and by now the focus of attention has shifted from fixing the transaction malleability to solving the problem of Bitcoin scaling.
2️⃣What is SegWit2x?
SegWit2x is the next step of Bitcoin update.
It’s is a second part of the New York Agreement reached May 23, 2017. This update means increasing the Bitcoin block up to two MB.
SegWit fixed some mistakes and provided background for the next improvements. Nevertheless, it didn’t solve the problem of small blocks. Back in the days, one MB might have been enough to meet users’ needs, but nowadays the amount of data is too large. It has a great impact on the rate of transaction confirmation and internal fees. And who likes high fees and anxious waiting for block confirmation?
3️⃣What to expect about SegWit2x?
SegWit2x is canceled but it’s still possible to be implemented in the near future.
Specialists point out that this update has some weak points. The main problem is a replay protection, more precisely, a lack of replay protection. The possibility of a replay attack allows fraudsters to get access to user confidential information, which, in turn, undermines the credibility of Bitcoin. This problem is too serious to ignore it.
The problem of Bitcoin scaling is still relevant. It has to be solved. SegWit2x is a possible solution but it has some technical issues. Quite possibly, the scaling will be forthcoming but it will take time to consider and change the hard fork implementation.