Address Format

Unlike some other Bitcoin scaling solutions that require 0x-prefixed EVM addresses, Side Chain, as a fully Bitcoin-compatible chain, supports both Bitcoin’s Taproot and Native Segregated Witness (SegWit) addresses as its default address formats, sparing users the hassle of managing multiple address types. Additionally, Bitcoin wallets can directly sign transactions on Side Chain, bypassing the need for EVM wallets like MetaMask and offering a more intuitive, Bitcoin-native experience.

For example, Native SegWit addresses are encoded with Bech32 and begin with 'bc1q'. Here is an example:

{
    "name": "test",
    "type": "local",
    "address": "bc1qcr8te4kr609gcawutmrza0j4xv80jy8z306fyu",
    "pubkey": "{\\"@type\\":\\"/cosmos.crypto.segwit.PubKey\\",\\"key\\":\\"AzDVT9DdQgpuX402JPXzSCyuNQ951fB1O/W+75wtka88\\"}"
}

Bech32 encoding is a specific format used for representing Bitcoin addresses, introduced as part of the SegWit upgrade. It offers several advantages over previous address formats, including improved error detection and more efficient space usage in transactions.

SegWit addresses are those generated using Segregated Witness, a protocol upgrade implemented in Bitcoin to address issues like scalability and transaction malleability.

To support SegWit, the Side Chain implements cosmos.crypto.segwit.PrivKey and cosmos.crypto.segwit.PubKey for signing and verification. Therefore, SegWit addresses can be used on both Bitcoin and the Side Chain. Users on the Side Chain can utilize their Bitcoin wallets (such as OKX Wallet and Unisat) to sign transactions for staking, voting, and other activities on the Side Chain.