Crypto Core Education

What are the different Bitcoin address types?

Bitcoin address types are the different formats a wallet can use to receive funds, each defined by the script and encoding behind it. The main families are Legacy addresses starting with 1, P2SH addresses starting with 3 that enabled features like multisignature, native SegWit (bech32) addresses starting with bc1q that lower fees, and Taproot addresses starting with bc1p that improve privacy and efficiency. They all hold the same bitcoin; they differ in cost, compatibility, and capability. For example, sending to a bech32 address generally costs less in fees, while older wallets may only recognize legacy formats.