Bitcoin [BTC] Core developer talks about using Segwit for non-Lightning wallets

Bitcoin [BTC] and the rest of the cryptocurrency market has witnessed a hectic roller coaster ride that has resulted in the prices fluctuating to massive highs as well as market crashes that saw prices plummet. The nineteen days of twenty nineteen that has passed has encompassed both bull runs as well as bearish falls.

After seeing a sustained sideways movement for a long time, Bitcoin enjoyed a rally on January 19 that saw the cryptocurrency jump to $3624 to $3778. The rise in Bitcoin’s utility and acceptance has also caused members of the community to speak up for the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Luke Dash Jr, a Bitcoin Core developer had recently tweeted:

“As a reminder, you should NOT use #Segwit for non-Lightning wallets. It is harmful to #Bitcoin by enabling larger blocks and increasing the growing rate of centralisation. (This *includes* Bech32 addresses! Try to use 1xxx or 3xxx addresses you’re sure are not Segwit).”

The Segwit discussion has been ongoing for some time with several Bitcoin proponents giving their views on the topic. Andreas Antonopoulos, a well know Bitcoin proponent and the author of Mastering Bitcoin had said:

“The amount of computation you need to calculate a hashed timelock contract… and route [through channels] is such that… If you have two Lightning nodes on a well-connected network, and exchange transactions between them… as fast as possible, you [could] do hundreds of thousands of [payments] per second. Transactions are only seen by [the nodes involved in a channel].”

Luke Dash Jr also said that the one exception where Segwit can be used is for long term savings. He stated that if a user is not planning to use the wallet at all for several years, then the user should probably use Segwit since their “next transaction will likely be to upgrade to Lightning”.

In his Twitter thread, Dash Jr concluded by saying that:

“Since several people have expressed concern: There is NOT any risk of theft from using Segwit. Anyone claiming they can be stolen easier (especially justifying it as “anyone can spend”) is a trolling liar. The danger is sync times, NOT theft.”

Luke was also in the news recently when he defended Bitcoin’s small block size. He had also said that Lightning network is the real peer to peer transactions without flooding the network with every transaction on the blockchain.