Crypto Exchanges are constantly in the news due to frequent updates or news about delisting some of the leading cryptocurrency because of issues with the community. Now, the latest update comes from Gemini, a Winklevoss brothers-founded Crypto Exchange declared Monday that it has added "full" support for segregated witness (SegWit). SegWit is basically a protocol which changes the way data is stored.
Various companies have adopted SegWit upto some degree, but Gemini is unique as it is the biggest bitcoin exchange until now which released support for "native SegWit addresses" a latest bitcoin address which aims to expand crypto market but has accepted to a lesser degree.
Carolyn Vadino, who is the Head of Communications said,
“Our choice to use native SegWit addresses was based on many factors including block space savings as well as safety concerns. As SegWit’s use, support, and adoption grows, it will help reduce fees, wait times, and network congestion.”
He believes that SegWit transactions will be the foundation for more advanced technologies, out of which one is Lightning Network is most popular.
A change SegWit is for enhancing how many transactions bitcoin can support at once, each and every exchange has to individually code up support for the latest type of transaction. Also, adding native SegWit addresses takes some more time and that's why the change is not yet available everywhere.
The SegWit Protocol update was done back in 2017, and it has improved the way data is stored and processed on Bitcoin Blockchain. Due to this, each transaction on the bitcoin blockchain weighs 30-40% less, and also general transaction fees are reduced.
Brian KimJohnson, a Gemini software engineer said, "We believe SegWit will become the standard, and in doing so, will create extensive benefits for all participants on the Bitcoin network."
“As block space is limited, any decrease in transaction size allows for more transactions per block and greater overall throughput in the network,” as explained in Gemini’s post.
Gemini claims that even though it will take some time to fully adopt the change in the ecosystem. "We think it’s the right time to make this change, though there will still be some growing pains. Notably, while some block explorers are capable of tracking native SegWit addresses, the support varies widely from one solution to another," said Brian KimJohnson, in the blog post.
Lastly, after doing comprehensive testing and development, the firm believed that it has taken the correct decision by launching SegWit Support for its customers at the right time.