Bitcoin address formats and performance comparison

There are 3 types of addresses:

  1. P2PKH or Legacy address (old address format) is the first version of a Bitcoin address that starts with the number "1" and has 26 to 36 characters. The average fee when sending from a P2PKH address is usually higher than when sending from a Segwit address, because transactions with outdated addresses are larger in size.
    Example: 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa
  2. P2SH is the new address type is structured similarly to P2PKH, but starts with "3" instead of "1". P2SH provides more complex functionality than the previous type of address. In order to spend bitcoins sent via P2SH, the recipient must provide a script corresponding to the script hash and data, which makes the script true. However, all that an ordinary user needs to know is that using this type of address instead of P2PKH, the average transaction fee will be less.
    Example: 3GRdnTq18LyNveWa1gQJcgp8qEnzijv5vR
  3. P2WPKH or Bech32 is an advanced type of address that is used to reduce blockchain block sizes to speed up transaction response time. Addresses start with "bc1" and are longer than P2PKH and P2SH. Bech32 is the native Segwit addressing format (although P2SH can also be a Segwit address), so usually speaking about the use of Segwit addresses Bech32 is meant.
    The advantage is the lowest transaction sending fee and high processing speed.
    The disadvantage of such addresses is that not all wallets and systems support it yet.
    Example: bc1qnkyhslv83yyp0q0suxw0uj3lg9drgqq9c0auzc

FixedFloat uses Bech32 addresses by default, as our team is committed to introducing new technologies.

Bitcoin address performance comparison chart

For simplicity, we use the following abbreviations:
I   – P2PKH, adress starts with "1"
II  – P2SH, adress starts with "3"
III – Bech32, adress starts with "bc1"

Sender Address Type Recipient Address Type Average transaction weight Conclusion
I I 764 The most inefficient transaction, the type of the sender address plays a key role, the recipient address affects the efficiency is not significant in all examples
I II 756
I III 752
II I 541 Transactions with a P2SH sender address are more than 29% cheaper than with an outdated P2PKH address
II II 533
II III 529
III I 449 Transactions with a Bech32 sender address are more than 40% cheaper than with an outdated P2PKH address; and more than 15% cheaper than with a P2SH address
III II 441
III III 437

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