The debate over Bitcoin's scalability has sparked much controversy in the community, but amidst all this chaos, a temporary solution emerged that would alleviate the block size issue. This was the SegWit update.
On August 23rd rd , 2017, Bitcoin was soft forked or upgraded to incorporate SegWit or Segregated Witness to fix the coin's scaling issue.
What is SegWit?
SegWit , which is short for Segregated Witness, is an update to a protocol blockchain which modifies the data storage. It removes signature data from transactions and as a result increases the block size limit of a blockchain.
The initial goal of the update was to fix a bug in the code related to transaction malleability, which gave anyone access to modify transaction details and the subsequent hash without affecting the content. While this was not a major issue, it did make it difficult to develop other features such as smart contracts and layer 2 protocols.
The protocol improves transaction flexibility by removing signature information (or “witness” information) and storing it outside of the underlying transaction block. Because of this, signatures and scripts can be modified externally without changing the transaction ID.
Bitcoin developer Pieter Wuille is responsible for creating the concept of SegWit.
Bitcoin is not the only coin that has implemented this update. There are many altcoins that have also activated SegWit on their blockchain.
1. Litecoin
Even though Litecoin was created from a fork of Bitcoin, it was actually Litecoin that first got SegWit implemented on May 10th. th of 2017.
Litecoin was created to serve as the silver to Bitcoin’s gold, and it also served as a testing ground for the latest crypto. Both Bitcoin and Litecoin are doing very well, and LTC is doing particularly well for Bitcoin.
Exchanges atômicas entre BTC e LTC foram realizadas para solidificar ainda mais o caminho para o dimensionamento.
2. Vertcoin
O Vertcoin foi criado em 2014 para ser uma criptomoeda peer-to-peer. Por isso, eles implementaram algoritmos de mineração que impossibilitavam o uso de ASICs, o que permitia a mineração em massa de Vertcoin de maneira descentralizada.
Vertcoin was the next after Litecoin to activate SegWit and begin testing. The first attempt to implement the upgrade in February was not very successful, halving the blockchain due to a bug. Vertcoin developer who goes by the pseudonym etang600, however, pointed out that the issue was due to poor implementation and was not related to the SegWit upgrade.
Vertcoin eventually implemented SegWit on May 7, 2017, to benefit from faster transactions and reduced network fees. The Vertcoin software was subsequently updated to new SegWit address formats.
3. Digibyte
The Digibyte project, established in 2014, is another proof-of-work coin that aims to be a decentralized digital asset that solves some of the drawbacks presented by Bitcoin and Litecoin.
Digitbyte has incorporated 5 mining algorithms into its code to achieve proof of work, making it completely decentralized.
The coin also activated SegWit in 2017 and managed to do so before Vertcoin's activation, after much deliberation and consensus from its community in April of that year.
4. Nav Coin
Nav Coin is a privacy-focused altcoin that implements a dual-blockchain proof-of-stake protocol. The project was created in 2014 based on the Bitcoin core code.
Since Nav Coin also uses the UTXO model like Bitcoin, it also had its transaction malleability problem.
To address this issue, Nav Coin has also activated SegWit on its blockchain, making it the first PoS coin to have a SegWit implementation on its blockchain.
5. Syscoin
Syscoin launched on March 31st st Syscoin Core 2.1.3 com SegWit totalmente ativado, tendo o objetivo de se tornar um mercado descentralizado.
It integrated SegWit to solve transaction malleability as it was also a fork of Bitcoin.
O processo foi finalizado após quase dois meses: a primeira versão do Syscoin Core destaque SegWit e Lightn i ng de rede .
The activation of SegWit led to positive growth in the price of the coin. It got SegWit activated in Q1 2017, around the same time Litecoin had its own SegWit implementation.
6. Groestlcoin
Developed in 2014, Groestlcoin is one of the lesser known coins on our list (being ranked 146 º on Coinmarketcap overall according to market cap), however, it is one of the first coins to have a successful activation of the SegWit protocol.
The required consensus level reached 95% in January, after which activation began. However, due to the smaller size of the project, scalability was never an issue compared to that of Bitcoin .
Conclusion
Since many of these altcoins were forked from Bitcoin, it made sense that they would also implement SegWit following the example of Bitcoin and Litecoin, because they inherited the flaws that were inherent in the Bitcoin blockchain.