BitMEX to Introduce Bitcoin SegWit Support

BitMEX has revealed several changes to its activities. One of which is its plan to improve Bitcoin transactions by adding SegWit support. 

With immediate effect, BitMEX will permit its clients to withdraw or send their Bitcoin funds to Bech32 SegWit addresses. 

The trade says that this will permit clients to profit by lowering expenses, improved error detection, and more effective QR codes. Regarding effectiveness, BitMEX gauges that it will spare about 65% on block weight, which ought to lessen charges. 

The update is essential to a bigger overhaul that will see BitMEX improve its incorporation with Bitcoin Core. Up to this point, the exchange makes use of an in-house fork to protect the wallet subtleties of clients.

What is SegWit?

Segregated Witness (SegWit) was enacted on Bitcoin on Aug. 24 2017. SegWit is the cycle by which the block size limit on a blockchain is expanded by eliminating signature data from Bitcoin exchanges.

The update additionally permits Bitcoin to convey more block data in a solitary block, viably expanding Bitcoin’s square size from 1 MB to 4 MB. 

SegWit probably saw some early interest and trust in its services. By late 2019, 55% of addresses utilized the feature. Three years after its launch, the quantity of addresses utilizing the feature has dropped drastically.

Today, just 45% of the Bitcoin addresses are utilizing the feature, according to locales that track its appropriation rate.

SegWit is also supported many exchanges other than BitMEX. Coinbase, Kraken, Bitfinex, Gemini, OKEx are all giant crypto exchange platforms that have additional SegWit support. 

Notably, in February 2018, Coinbase declared support for the update, causing an enormous spike in its reception from 15% to 30% of Bitcoin addresses. Nonetheless, Binance has kept on putting off the update. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, showed support for SegWit around a year ago, however, the update keeps on being on a low level of acceptance.

Wallet Upgrades for BitMEX

The exchange site has decided to set up further upgrade to their wallets. It will start to enable SegWit (non-native) as compared to its current non-SegWit P2SH multi-signature wallet solution.