Are Bech32 addresses safe for mainnet usage?

Question

According to github bitcoin/bips, BIP-173 is still a draft. And i saw today that Electrum wallet start using it.

Is this means that the specs for BIP-173 won't change in the future ? or the final version won't introduce breaking changes to the draft version ?

I just learned about Bech32 addresses this week and this gets me a little confused

satoshi_ghost · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-03 12:44:44Z

3

Yes, they are. Bech32 addresses allow for native Segwit outputs, which offer higher efficiency and security than the legacy P2SH nested Segwit outputs. https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0173.mediawiki#Reference_implementations has reference implementations in C, C++, JS, Go, Python, Haskell, Ruby, and Rust along with tests courteous of Pieter Wuille

answered Jan 3 '18 at 5:01

satoshi_ghost

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Thanks a lot @satoshi_ghost ! i have been waiting this answer for a long time :D – youssef Jan 3 '18 at 16:43
1

Pieter Wuille just moved the BIP from draft to proposed (github.com/bitcoin/bips/pull/627). – satoshi_ghost Jan 3 '18 at 17:38

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