segregated witness [English]
InterPARES Definition
No definition in earlier IP projects. ITrust definition not yet developed.
Other Definitions
- Scaling Bitcoin [2017] (†845 s.v. "Segregated witness"): This BIP defines a new structure called a "witness" that is committed to blocks separately from the transaction merkle tree. This structure contains data required to check transaction validity but not required to determine transaction effects. In particular, scripts and signatures are moved into this new structure.
Citations
- Beigel, 2016 (†809 ): Segwit was invented in order to help shrink the file size of a Bitcoin transaction. This allows more transactions to be approved each time a block of transactions is confirmed. Basically, its purpose is to make the Bitcoin network approve more transactions with each block. · Every Bitcoin transaction has 3 parts – who sent it, who receives it, and a digital signature that verifies the sender has the right to send the coins. The signature is considered to be “the witness” for the transaction. · Segregated Witness means that we are separating the witness from the transaction in order to make it smaller in size. The signature data, or witness, will still be transmitted, however it won’t be included inside of the transaction. (†2137)
- van Wirdum 2016 (†800 s.v. "Schnorr"): With Segregated Witness, all signature data is moved to a separate part of the transaction: the witness, which is not embedded in the “old” Bitcoin protocol. And thanks to script versioning, almost any rule applied in the witness can be changed through a soft fork. Including the type of signature scheme used. This opens the door for Schnorr. (†2039)