Segwit Reading Assignment

[AJade]

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit? Increase the block size
2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue? Transaction malleability
3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected? Segwit enables lightning network (a second layer protocol)
4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit? No, but it’s in their best interest to use it.

[pbrandstater]

1. Increase block size
2. Malleability
3. Lightening sits on second layer protocol
4. No

[Creator3168]

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit? A proposed alternative to Segwit was to increase the block size limit.
2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
   In addition to the scaling issue, Segwit solved the issue of Transaction ID malleability by removing the signature from the computation of the Transaction ID hash.
3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
   Segwit is the blockchain protocol that enables a second-layer protocol like the Lightning network to increase transaction capacity by taking frequent small transactions off-chain, only settling on a bitcoin blockchain when the users are ready.
4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
   No, it was not a hard fork and previous transactions are still considered valid.

[patryan]

@filip

It’s time for a reading assignment about Segwit. Read through the following article https://www.coindesk.com/information/what-is-segwit, and answer the following questions.

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?

1. The porposed alternative to segwit was to just increase the block size to 2mb per block.
2. Segwit solved both the scaling issue (concerning transactions fees and confirmation time) as well as transaction mallebility.
3. Segwit supports the development of second layer protocols, such as the lightning network. The malleability fix made any feature that relied on unconfirmed transactions less risky and easier to design
   4.People aren’t forced instead most wallets are integrating this process gradually since 2018.

[filip4900]

1. Bitcoin Cash (increasing the block size limit, hard fork)
2. Transaction ID malleability, supported lightning network and implementation of more advanced features
3. Segwit, through eliminating malleability, made any features relying on unconfirmed transactions less risky to implement
4. Segwit is a soft fork, meaning that the old protocol is still compatible with the new blocks Segwit creates (previously valid blocks invalid). Therefore nobody is forced to upgrade to it.

[MarcusG]

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?

A proposed alternative to Segwit is to implement a larger block size limit.

2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?

More than just the scaling issue, Segwit also solve transaction malleability, which is the process of changing the transaction hash by changing the digital signature used to create it.

With Segwit, the transaction hash no longer takes into account the digital signature as Segwit stores the digital signature outside of the transaction block. Hence, when the attacker changes the digital signature, the transaction hash remains unchanged.

3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?

Segwit supports the development of second layer protocols such as the Lightning network, which increases the transaction capacity of Bitcoin.

4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?

People, wallets and other services are not forced to use Segwit because adoption is voluntary since Segwit is a soft fork solution.

[kenn.eth]

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?

To incresse the block size. But that require a hardfork

2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?

Segwit solve also the transaction malleability, by keeping the signature out of the transaction, users cannot change the signature. So TXID will always been the same even if someone change the signature.

3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?

Segwit also is compatible with second layer solutions, like the lightning network. Allowing to be adopt easily for checking information on the signature.

4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?

No, it is a implementation that have to be done by services who want to integrated.

[shaakirah]

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
   To increase the block size

2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
   The transaction malleability.

3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
   Segwit makes the second layer possible.

4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
   No, it is optional.

[Speedster]

1. One proposed alternative to Segwit was increasing the block size from 1 MB.Bitcoin Cash is an example of this. It seems that disagreement on the proposal stems from peoples interpretation of what was a good long term fix. Given that number of transactions were increasing rapidly to avoid longer confirmation times and higher fees either the size or efficiency of the blocks had to be increasesed.

2. Segwit improved the issue of fixed block size issue by taking the signature out of the transaction data and storing it seperately. This also prevented malicious actors from altering the signature and creating a new transaction ID and then scamming the sender into sending another transaction.

3. The Segwit soft fork enabled layer 2 solutions such as Lightning network as it made protocols that rely on unconfirmed transactions easier to design.

4. As Segwit is a soft fork people, wallets and other services are not forced to use it.

[Speedster]

Question. How many more transactions per block did Segwit allow? I guess this answer depends as the amount of data required for each transaction varies. But on average was it a 1%, 10%, 100% improvement?

[jackswango]

1. Bitcoin Cash - increased block size

2. Transaction malleability - removing signature information and storing it outside of the base transaction block.

3. Supports second layer protocols such as the lightning network takes frequent, small transactions off-chain temporarily.

4. No, rollout is slow but a small amount of larger wallets/exchanges are implementing it

[itsellageee]

1. An alternative proposal was to increase the block size.

2. Segwit solved the issue of transaction malleability by removing the signature from the transaction data structure.

3. Segwit supports development of second-layer protocols, including the Lightning network which takes small transactions off-chain temporarily till the user is ready.

4. You could argue no one is being ‘forced’ to use Segwit however with the largest wallets implementing segwit this will inevitably lead to more people and more transactions using Segwit, ultimately lowering transaction fees.

[Eric_Toronto]

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
   A proposed alternative to Seqwit is to increase the maximum block size in the Bitcoin protocol. An implementation of such proposal is Bitcoin Cash, which uses a larger block size limit.

2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
   Seqwit also solve the problem of transaction malleability, a hack that exploit the original Bitcoin requirement to include signatures in the hash of transaction IDs. Seqwit proposes removal of signatures from the calculation of transaction IDs and thus eliminating the hack as well. By reducing the size of transactions, Segwit also benefits the development of new Bitcoin features such as off-block speedier transactions (e.g., lightning network and TumbeBit), better smart contracts (e.g., MAST), and more security features (e.g., Schnorr signatures).

3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
   Lightning network is an off-block network for faster and possibly anonymous transactions of small sizes, where no formal Bitcoin verification is applied. By slimming down transaction sizes and removing a security vulnerability in the original Bitcoin protocol, Segwit contributed to removing the greatest obstacles to making Bitcoin transactions over a lightning network.

4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
   No, participants on the Bitcoin network are not forced to adopt Segwit; however, as more participants appreciate the benefit of Seqwit, more of them have switched to Segwit.

[Restford]

1. Increased block size for transactions
2. The issue of malleability
3. Second layer solutions became possible due to Segwit.
4. No, since it was a soft fork, nodes that are not updated can still accept the blocks even with the new rules.

[lucas]

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
Bitcoin block size increment. See Bitcoin cash hard fork.

2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
The malleability problem. It is a “bug” so that you can change the signature (while the transaction is still valid) changing the TxID. moving the signature (witness) outside the transaction so it cannot be changed. How a signature can be changed? For example you can change how the signature is represented without changing the value. Ex: if the signature is the value 5 (is not but just for the example) you can change in 05 so the value is always 5. doing so the hash (TxID) is changed, but the signature is still valid.
Also bitcoin fees should drop as blocks contain a greater number of transactions

3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
Fixing the malleability issue enables 2nd layer (side chains) solution like lightning network. Because since lightning network has to be linked with transaction id you cannot risk that the TxID can be changed (without Segwit is possible)

4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
It is a soft fork. So you can keep using the old (not upgraded) software version. You have to upgrade if you want to use the new features. Nowadays it is wide adopted (66% https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-network-segwit-adoption-hits-66-after-bitmex-embraces-upgrade )

[Mr_AhWen]

[quote=“filip, post:1, topic:8408”]

• What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?

1. To increase the size of the blocks to above 1mB. But this would only be a temporary fix and would eventually need to be increased again at some point.

• What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?

2. It also addressed the malleability issue by storing the signatures outside the TX. This helped to reduce the size of the blocks, making transactions cheaper.

• How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?

3. Segwit supports second layer protocols like Lightening network.

• Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?

4. No as it is a soft fork.

[Amjak]

1. increasing the block size.

2. it solved the transaction malleability problem.

3. segwit facilitated the development of 2nd layer protcols suh as lighting network by making any unconfirmed transaction less riskey and easier to desgin.

4. no it is not forced, it was a soft fork.

[timl]

@filip

It’s time for a reading assignment about Segwit. Read through the following article https://www.coindesk.com/information/what-is-segwit , and answer the following questions.

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?

1. An increase in block size.

2. It solved the transaction malleability. A change in signature no longer changes the block hash.

3. By solving the transaction malleability, layer 2 protocols can be constructed.

4. No, as it still fits the previous rules and no hard fork is needed. Everything is still compliant by previous rules.

[Tristan]

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?

QNS 1 ANS: An increase in block size limit.

QNS 2 ANS: Segwit solved transaction malleability, which no longer change the block hash when there is a change in signature.

QNS 3 ANS: Lighting network is a 2nd layer protocol for the bitcoin network, with solving the issue of transaction malleability, we then will be able to have segwit integrating the 2nd layer network.

QNS 4 ANS: No, as it is still under the same chain and rules where no hard fork is needed.

[Samore]

1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
   Increasing the blocksize to 2 mB.
2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
   It also corrected a bug in the code called ’ transaction malleability’.
3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
   Thru a second layer of protocols.
   4, Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
   No, Bitcoin Cash was a Hard Fork that utilized the larger Block size option.