BitGo, a blockchain security company, and multi-sig wallet provider announced the launch and rolling out of SegWit to selected BitGo wallets as it activates today on the Bitcoin network.
The company’s plan is to immediately launch with a few select customers while they observe production operation. Assuming SegWit works as expected for a few days, BitGo plans to release final versions of their SDK and begin rollout of SegWit to all BitGo wallets.
To note, BitGo web wallet users do not need to do anything to take advantage of SegWit as it will be automatically enabled. Moreover, BitGo API customers can activate SegWit at any time by upgrading their copies of BitGoJS, BitGoD, and BitGo Express once the final SegWit-activated versions are released.
There are two immediate benefits of SegWit for BitGo users:
1) BitGo’s multi-signature transactions will cost about half the fee that they used to cost prior to SegWit
2) By enabling SegWit, you will be reducing the transactional weight of your transactions on the blockchain, freeing space for other transactions and helping Bitcoin scale.
Trading counterparties do not need to upgrade their software, as anyone can send to SegWit addresses or receive money sent from SegWit wallets.