Bitcoin transactions gain momentum as users adopt software upgrade

The software update SegWit is designed to speed up bitcoin transactions

Segregated Witness, or SegWit, the software upgrade designed to speed up Bitcoin transactions, is gaining traction. The number of transactions using the technology doubled to more than 30 percent in just the past three days, according to the SegWit.Party website, which tracks the data. The following chart shows the percentage of transactions using SegWit in the past week.

As Bitcoin grew in popularity in the past year, the cryptocurrency’s network became clogged, making transaction times and fees soar. In December, transaction costs climbed to as high as $55, according to BitInfoCharts. SegWit is meant to solve that problem by taking some of the work needed to confirm transactions off the main chain, speeding up the process.

Major crypto-asset exchanges Coinbase Inc. and Bitfinex started using SegWit this month, helping to speed up adoption. The upgrade was first released in August.

Transaction fees have dropped to a four-month low of $2, though confirmed transactions per day have also dropped to around 200,000 from more than double that number in December.