Study: SegWit and batching could save Bitcoin users around 58,000 BTC

Adoption of Bitcoin scaling solutions by all infrastructure participants in the cryptocurrency industry would save users nearly 58,000 BTC (more than $630 million at the time of writing). Analysts from the Veriphi startup reached this conclusion.

The gradual uptick in Bitcoin network load is driving up the fees required for rapid transaction confirmations. At the time of writing, their median value exceeds $3.4, according to Bitinfocharts.

Seg Wit Batching Case Study by ForkLog on Scribd

One of the solutions capable of lowering fees is SegWit, activated on the network in August 2017, analysts noted. If all exchanges and wallets had added its support since launch, users would have saved 36,685.72 BTC (~$403.5 million at the time of writing) in less than three years.

Veriphi concluded that substantial cost reductions could also be achieved via batching. This technology is used to aggregate several transactions into one, reducing the required fee. Its adoption by all infrastructure providers would save 21,131.97 BTC (~$232.4 million).

Total savings from using the two technologies above could amount to $635.9 million. However, not all exchanges, wallets and other providers have implemented them.

The report’s authors urged market participants to consider deploying these technologies to reduce Bitcoin users’ costs, including their own expenditures:

“The described potential savings are substantial. Anyone handling large volumes of transactions should seriously consider implementing these tools to stay competitive and save money.”

In May, a developer under the alias 0xb10c stated that the cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX was implicated in a substantial overstatement of the average Bitcoin network fee.

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