A long-debated change originally intended to improve bitcoin has now locked in on the lesser-known cryptocurrency network litecoin.
Segregated Witness (SegWit) has been the subject of bitcoin's infamous scaling debate for a couple of years now, but it's now getting an opportunity to shine on litecoin, or so its supporters argue, leading some to believe that it will now help reveal whether concerns about the change are valid for bitcoin.
The change first locked-in two weeks ago, leading to two more weeks of waiting to ensure demand for the upgrade remained consistent. Earlier today, the change activated at block 1201536.
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What does that mean? Litecoin users can now begin using the new style of transaction, and there has been at least one such transaction so far.
However, most advocates are excited about the new technologies that can now be built on top of a network with SegWit. For example, the Lightning Network, which could boost litecoin transactions by as much as a million times, can now hypothetically be used to move real money.
Litecoin developer Loshan T told CoinDesk: