In response to requests from several customers, we have added support for sending to the new bech32 address format. In Bitcoin, these addresses begin with the prefix “bc1”, and in Litecoin they begin with the prefix “ltc1”. Here is an example of how to use a bech32 address for Bitcoin in the receive address of our web site:
What are bech32 addresses?
Bech32 addresses are a new address format for Bitcoin and Bitcoin-compatible coins such as Litecoin. They are an optional replacement for base58 addresses.
Why use bech32 addresses?
One advantage of the bech32 addresses is that they use only lower-case letters, whereas base58 addresses are mixed-case, which makes bech32 addresses faster to type and read out loud. Bech32 addresses are also smaller, so they will save a few bytes in your transactions, slightly reducing the transaction fees you pay.
Do I need to start using bech32 addresses?
No, you can continue to use the older base58 format for Bitcoin addresses. And in some cases, you will still need to use the older format, since many exchanges don’t yet support the bech32 format.
What wallets and exchanges support bech32 addresses?
This wiki page tracks the current adoption status of the bech32 address format:
https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Bech32_adoption