The long and widely discussed update, which was originally intended for bitcoins of the network, is now fixed in the lesser known crypto currency network, litecoin.
For two years now, Segregated Witness (SegWit) has been the subject of an unhealthy dispute among the bitcoin followers, but now it will work in the litecoin network. Supporters of the update argue that now SegWit will help to find out how justified the fears of introducing this change for the network of bitcoins.
The update was first made two weeks ago, and it took a two-week wait to verify its correctness / compatibility with the network. Yesterday early in the morning SegWit is activated in block 1201536!
What does it mean? Users of the Litecoin network will now be able to use a new type of transaction, and at the moment there is at least one such transaction.
First SegWit transaction on Litecoin! Http: //t.co/QTJAMDlC8s
- Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) May 10, 2017
Most supporters are now delighted with the possibility of introducing innovative add-ins to the network with SegWit. For example, the Lightning Network, now able to increase the lightbox transaction a million times.
Here is what one of the developers litecoin Loshan T:
"It seems like a great day today to start working with the awesome technological innovations in the litecoin network. When SegWit is activated in the main network lightnet, I can not wait to deploy confidential transactions - Lightning Network, MAST and Schnorr. "
Nevertheless, it is still quite an early stage. For example, developers from the start-up Lightning Labs think that "it is still too early to talk about sending funds through the experimental network [at the same time] spinning in the mind of some of the shortcomings of their code."
Uncertain future
It is not yet clear what exactly this activation means, and what will be the role of litecoin in the future.
Loshan mentioned that some are skeptical of the fact that litecoins nets really need Lightning Network. But the developer believes that while the litecoins transaction blocks are not yet full, but indicate unreliable transactions between the btc and ltc chains, this is good for both crypto currencies, even though this is a potential [rare] case of using the Lightning Network.
Another important point is that wallets will need to be updated to support the type of transactions. For example, the wallet mSIGNA has already done this.
In addition, there were some logistical and political concerns about activation. Previously, the developers were not sure that all the miners and exchanges are fully prepared for SegWit.
Time will show which of the moments turn out to be really problematic / critical. In the meantime, the crypto currency is working fine!