Bitcoin Core version 0.16.0 has officially gone live after developer approval, bringing with it a host of improvements to the wallet software’s base code.

Full support for SegWit

Bitcoin Core, a widely-used bitcoin-wallet has implemented the latest developer code updates for the blockchain cryptocurrency.

As has been remarked upon in previous posts, the most notable change in this update is the introduction of full support for Segregated Witness (SegWit), a scaling solution that was implemented and activated on the Bitcoin network last August.

Users had hoped that these changes would be included in the previous release, Bitcoin Core version 0.15.1, but that update ultimately saw developers focus their attention on addressing perceived threats associated with the contentious SegWit2x hard fork, which failed to reach its deadline launch in December.

However, version 0.16.0 now includes support for “native SegWit addresses,” which act as a great user-friendly incentive to leverage the bech32 address format and support SegWit payments automatically.

All in all, the upgraded features allow users to take full advantage of the SegWit update, reducing the size of transactions and moderately lowering fees.

As more users send SegWit Transactions – and major Bitcoin exchanges and wallet services implement it as well – the network’s transaction capacity will surge, further enhancing the fee reductions.

More upgrades

Although SegWit is the main headline for this support, it also includes several other noteworthy upgrades.

First, replace-by-fee (RBF) — which gives users the opportunity to replace slower, mined transactions with new transactions for a higher fee — which will be enabled by default.

Next, all new Bitcoin Core wallets will be hierarchical deterministic (HD), which means that they operate according to the BIP32 protocol, therefore allowing the creation of child keys from parent keys.

In addition, users will notice a slight change in the GUI, as the colloquial “bits” has been added to the more technically-specific µBTC denomination.

Furthermore, there are several other tweaks to Bitcoin Core’s remote procedure call (RPC) repository, but such changes will not change the user experience for casual users.

Due to certain changes in the codebase, wallets created in versions 0.16.0 and later won’t be compatible with versions released prior to 0.16.0. As such, users should be aware of the lack of backwards compatibility should they decide to revert to an older version for whatever reason.

This comes as Bitcoin leads a major crypto bull run passed the $10,000 barrier after a few slippery days, surging nearly 13% in less than 24 hours.