Segwit Reading Assignment

Blockchain and Bitcoin 101
#1406

What was a proposed alternative to Segwit? The alternative was to increase the capacity of a block, which is what was acheived when Bitcoin Cash hard forked.

What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue? It also fixed a previous vulnerability where a Transaction ID could have been modified, therefore changing the block hash.

How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected? Segwite laid the groundwork for Lighting Network to be implemented… Segwit expanded the transaction capacity by taking smaller transactions off-chain and settling on the blockchain when the user is ready.

Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit? They are not forced, but the benefits of lower transaction fees and faster transactions is incentive to adopt it.

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#1407

What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
The proposed alternative to Segwit was simply to raise the block size to be able to fit more transactions into every block.

What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
A bug in the Bitcoin protocol that caused transaction malleability. Which means that a transaction could be modified after someone had signed it and sent it away. This could be done through changing the digital signature in such a way that it didn’t change the validity of the transaction with all of its content still doing the exact same thing but the transaction ID got completely different, because the hash value that became the transaction ID had the digital signature as input to the hash function that made the exploit possible.

How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
Segwit solved bugs around transaction malleability that made other 2nd layer protocols like the lightning network possible when it became less risky with unconfirmed transactions. So simply put it made future second layer protocols possible on top of the Bitcoin protocol.

Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
No, it was a soft fork which is making the consensus rules stricter. That means that every miner, full node, SPV or services that are not updating the protocol will still be able to validate the blocks that is created on the new soft fork chain.

My understanding is also that Segwit is backwards compatible so that one can still use “legacy” addresses to send transactions from and still be seen as valid tx’s. The soft fork and backwards compatible properties give the Segwit roll-out a smoother transition from the legacy protocol.

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#1408

  1. the alternative was increasing the block size, which led to bcash.

  2. segwit initially intention was to fix transaction malleability, scaling was a byproduct.

  3. with fixing the transaction malleability, building 2nd layer solutions like lighting network is less risky.

  4. No, the inital block size stayed at 1mb, with that segwit is optional and didn’t result in a fork.

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#1409

Segwit - Segregated Witness

  1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?

Answer: Changing the Block size to 4Mb like BCH

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

Answer: Transaction Mallleability

  1. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?

Answer: The malleability fix made any feature that relied on unconfirmed transactions like Lightning Network, less risky and easier to design.

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

Answer: No, they can use services and wallets that don’t or didn’t adopt Segwit which will run more slowly.

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#1410

What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
Hard fork: Increase the blocksize. De facto, Bitcoin Cash arose thus.

What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
Bugfix of transaction malleability: Before the fix, Transaction ID (signature) could be manipulated by everyone.

How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
Second-layer protocol:; The “malleability fix made any feature that relied on unconfirmed transactions less risky and easier to design.”

The lightning network will further boost bitcoin’s transaction capacity by taking frequent, small transactions off-chain, only settling on the bitcoin blockchain when the users are ready.

Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
No, updating is expected to be accepted and implemented by wallet providers by time.

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#1411
  1. What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?

Simply increasing the block size. This is where Bitcoin cash comes from (they disagreed with the segwit approach)

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

The problem of transaction malleability. Since the signatures would no longer be stored directly in the transaction, it would no longer be possible to make small modifications and abuse the problem.

  1. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?

Lightning network would not have been possible without segwit.

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

No, segwit is a soft fork and in fact to this day remains only partially adopted.

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#1412
  1. Larger transaction block size limit (2MB instead of 1MB)
  2. TX Malleability, where the receiver can modify the txID by altering the signature.
  3. Segwit removed signatures from the transaction blocks which opens up for 2nd layer solutions, such as lightning network.
  4. No, not using segwit is still compatible with the bitcoin network. It was a soft fork
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#1413

  1. To increase the block size to 2 mb

  2. Transaction malleability -> changing the signtaure on a transaction which would in turn change the hash. This would make the transaction untraceable

  3. Lightening network takes small transaction off-chain until they’re ready to be confirmed. SegWit malleability fix made this process much easier and reliable.

  4. No they are not forced to do it but could impact their business if users want it.

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#1414
  1. Increase the block size.
  2. Signature malleability.
  3. Solving the signature malleability issue enabled lighting to develop by removing an inherent vulnerability.
  4. No one is forced to use Segwit.
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#1415

  • What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
    R: Implement a hardfork with greater block size (bitcoin cash)

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

  • How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
    R: SegWit helped to developed the Lightning Network

  • Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
    R: No, article mention until the day of publication there were only 14% of adoption

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#1416

1 What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
increasing block size

2 What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
by removing signatures from the TX it eliminated the issue of transaction malleability

3 How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
by fixing the TX malleability issue, segwit both increased the throughput capability of the network and made the network more secure allowing more complex transactions / contract to be executed

4 Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
no; segwit was a soft fork so use is optional

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#1417
  1. To increase the block size (hard fork).
  2. Fix the transactions malleability problem.
  3. SegWit suports second layer protocols such as Lightning network.
  4. No, old transactions can still be used. (soft fork)
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#1418
  1. A heavily proposed alternative to bitcoin’s scaling problem Segwit could have been replaced with a flawed option was an increase of block size from 1MB to 2 MB; Which can cause limitation to bitcoin’s growth and prevent it from becoming the high volume user-friendly protocol like it is today.
  2. Segwit not only solved bitcoin’s scaling issue but, also made a colossal effect on
  3. Segwit and lighting network are connected by fixing transaction malleability thus enabling more space into the block and also allowing bitcoin to boost transaction capacity by taking the transaction off-chain until the bitcoin user is ready to use the block/transaction.
    4.No the user is forced to use segwit in fact, some users are actually against it because of fear that it may lead to another problem down the road; An analogy for this in my opinion is saying “moving from a burning house to another burning house”. Still, the use of the upgraded seg-wit is growing more and more every year.
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#1419

1._ increase the block size from 1MB
2._ it solved a bug called a tx malleability, by removing the signature information from the base tx block .
3.- segwit make possible the lighting network.
4.,- no,is optional.

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#1420

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

  2. What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
    it solved Tx malleability and decrease the size of transactions by removing the signature from the data structure

  3. How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected? keeps the blocks full and eliminates tx malleability

  4. Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
    no

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#1421

1 What was a proposed alternative to SegWit?

The proposed alternative to Segwit was Bitcoin Cash (Hard Fork).

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

SegWit solved more than just the scaling issue by fixing transaction malleability. This was a problem that allowed for small detail changes to transaction id. Segwit solved this by moving the signature information to the outside of the transaction block. Now, signatures and scripts could change without having an affect on the transaction id.

3 How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?

Segwit supports a second layer of protocols e.g. lightning network. Lightning network increases BTC capacity by keeping regular small transactions off-chain.

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

People, wallets and other services are not forced to use Segwit when using BTC but the numbers are increasing.

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#1422 
1)  What was a proposed alternative to Segwit?
Increasing the block size, rather than changing the transaction structure.

2)  What did Segwit solve more than just the scaling issue?
Transaction Malleability, by storing signature data outside of the transaction.

3)  How is Segwit and the Lightning network connected?
Lightning Network is a second layer protocol ans Segwit supports the development of second layer protocols.

4)  Are people, wallets and other services forced to use Segwit?
No, but more and more people and entities have been embracing the upgrade and the percentage of transactions using the segwit structure is increasing.
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#1423

  1. The alternative was to increase to block size limit.

  2. It also solved the problem with transaction malleability.

  3. Just because Segwit allowed the development of second layer protocols, such as lightning network, it was not possible before Segwit update.

  4. No, they aren’t. Old wallets and address can still be used (soft fork).

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#1424

  1. That they simply increase the block size to 2 mb.

  2. Malleability.

  3. Segwit allows for the lighting network to be possible.

  4. No.

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#1425
  1. It was proposed to increase the block size from 1mB to 2mB.
  2. Segwit also solved transaction malleability by removing the signatures from transaction ID.
  3. Segwit made possible sustenance of the development of second layer protocol (lighting network).
  4. No. Using of Segwit is freely but its used by the majority of nodes (it is a soft fork).
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