Peer-to-Peer Trading Platform Bisq to Support SegWit

Peer-to-peer trading platform Bisq will soon add support for  Segregated Witness (SegWit), according to a tweet on Saturday.

Activated in August of 2017, SegWit introduced a number of improvements to Bitcoin’s performance, including an increase in Bitcoin’s theoretical block size that enabled fee savings for users, as well as a fix for an anomaly that prevented the straightforward deployment of second-layer solutions such as the Lightning Network.

Last week, Bisq shared that after a series of community proposals and grants, the platform would soon support SegWit transactions based on a proposal by developer Oscar Guindzberg.

The addition had previously been delayed due to technical issues and “high risk” caused by incomplete code support. 

However, new code libraries and additional technical support for a SegWit integration in recent months made it viable for Bisq to start work on the migration, the exchange noted.

An Anonymous Grant

According to Bisq, key challenges included finding a grant for the work involved in the migration and the technical obstacles associated with transferring user and transactional data to the new SegWit-enabled network.

In August, an anonymous guarantor agreed to oversee all finances required to put Guindzberg’s work into action. The funder noted the project was “very large” and could “span several months,” but committed to an earlier $30,000 estimate on a proposal.

The costs have since been revised to $45,000 after discussions between Bisq developers and the guarantor.

At press time, work on the implementation has begun and is expected to take several months until completion. The funds are placed in a multisig Bitcoin wallet until April 1st of 2021 and shall be returned to the guarantor if the project is not completed by then.