Send and receive support for BECH32 Addresses is now enabled on HardBlock.
The Bitcoin network is slowly moving to a new better Bitcoin address type.
This new address type is called 'BECH32'. This address type can be identified by its first three characters being 'bc1'. An example of a BECH32 address is 'bc1qw508d6qejxtdg4y5r3zarvary0c5xw7kv8f3t4' . BECH32 addresses characters are all lowercase.
Many wallets and exchanges do not yet allow users to generate or receive Bitcoins to this address type. Some services also do not support sending to BECH32 addresses.
You can see a comprehensive list of which services support BECH32 here.
How To Enable BECH32 Addresses On HardBlock
Sending from HardBlock to BECH32 addresses and from BECH32 addresses to HardBlock is already supported and you do not have to do anything different.
To send Bitcoins to a BECH32 address belonging to your HardBlock account, you will have to enable BECH32 addresses.
This is easy.
Once you are logged in to your HardBlock account,
→ Click on Deposit BTC in the left-hand navigational bar
→ Click Enable BECH32 Addresses
At any time you can disable BECH32 addresses to receive Bitcoin to legacy address types.
Benefits of BECH32 Addresses
The main benefit of BECH32 addresses is lower Bitcoin Network transaction fees when sending from a BECH32 address.
HardBlock's web wallet uses a flat fee for sending Bitcoin (currently, 0.0003BTC = ~$3) users who enable BECH32 will incur a 20% lower transaction fee on HardBlock.
In general, the benefits of BECH32 for the Bitcoin ecosystem are:
- ~10% Saving in transaction fees compared to SegWit-P2SH addresses,
- ~39-58% saving in fees compared to even older non-segwit addresses.
- Simpler and easier to scan QR codes,
- Less block weight which translates into higher Bitcoin network transaction capacity.
- Better error correction when making a mistake entering a Bitcoin address.
Further Information
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Other useful resources to learn about BECH32 addresses.