Distinguishing the Four Types of Bitcoin Addresses

As the Bitcoin protocol has evolved, various address types have been introduced within the network to meet demands for security and efficiency. Below are four address formats in Bitcoin:

Legacy Address (P2PKH)

• Legacy addresses, which were the original format used in Bitcoin, begin with the digit 1, such as 1MbeQFmHo9b69kCfFa6yBr7BQX4NzJFQq9. 
• These addresses utilize the Pay-to-Public-Key-Hash (P2PKH) script, occupy more space on the blockchain, process transactions relatively slower, and offer lower anonymity.

Nested SegWit Address (P2SH)

• Nested SegWit addresses start with the digit 3 in Bitcoin, for example: 3EmUH8Uh9EXE7axgyAeBsCc2vdUdKkDqWK. 
• SegWit (Segregated Witness) is a technology upgrade aimed at solving Bitcoin's scalability problem, increasing network capacity, and reducing transaction fees. SegWit addresses reduce the size of BTC transactions, thereby lowering transfer costs.

Native SegWit Address (P2WPKH)

• Native SegWit addresses start with bc1q and use the Bech32 encoding scheme, for example: bc1qj89046x7zv6pm4n00qgqp505nvljnfp6xfznyw. 
• Compared to Nested SegWit, Native SegWit addresses further optimize transaction processing and perform better in terms of wallet compatibility, readability, and space savings.

Taproot Address (P2TR)

• Taproot addresses start with bc1p and are the latest and most advanced format for bitcoin. They use the Bech32m encoding scheme, for example: bc1p8denc9m4sqe9hluasrvxkkdqgkydrk5ctxre5nkk4qwdvefn0sdsc6eqxe. 
• Taproot, activated on Bitcoin in late 2021, introduces a new signature scheme called Schnorr, which allows complex multi-signature transactions to appear like ordinary transactions, thus enhancing privacy.

Reminder:

• All four address types can be derived from the same mnemonic phrase. When generating a BTC account via imToken, you can choose any of these four address formats (Taproot address is the default if not chosen). 
• In the wallet generated from the same mnemonic phrase, each BTC address type currently supports creating only one account.
• BTC is not directly interchangeable among these address types. To transfer BTC from one type of address to another, you need to perform a transfer operation.