Bitcoin Address Types Explained: Legacy, SegWit and Taproot

If you have ever pasted a Bitcoin address and noticed some start with a 1, some with a 3, and some with bc1, you have already met the main address types. Knowing what each prefix means helps you pick the right receive address, avoid failed sends, and understand why fees differ.

What are the different Bitcoin address types?

The different Bitcoin address types are Legacy, P2SH, native SegWit and Taproot, introduced in that order as the protocol improved. Each is a different way of locking an output so that only the right key can spend it, and each encodes to a recognizable format. The coins themselves are identical bitcoin; the address type only decides the script that guards them and the rules for spending. Here is how they compare at a glance.

What is a legacy Bitcoin address?

A legacy address is the original Bitcoin address format, starting with the number 1, technically pay-to-public-key-hash (P2PKH). It has been valid since Bitcoin launched in 2009, so every wallet and exchange on earth can send to it, which is its one lasting advantage. The downside is cost: legacy inputs are the largest, so spending from a 1 address costs more in fees than any newer type. If you control an old wallet full of legacy UTXOs, you are paying a size premium every time you move them.

What is a SegWit address?

A SegWit address is one that uses Segregated Witness, the 2017 upgrade that moved signature data out of the main transaction body to make transactions smaller and cheaper. SegWit comes in two forms. Wrapped SegWit sits inside a P2SH address starting with 3, which kept it compatible with wallets that could send to a 3 address before they understood SegWit natively. Native SegWit uses the bech32 format starting with bc1q and is the cheapest of the two to spend, because it drops the extra wrapping. Most modern wallets default to native SegWit for exactly that reason.

What is a Taproot address?

A Taproot address is the newest common type, starting with bc1p and using the bech32m encoding, activated in 2021. Taproot improves privacy and enables more flexible spending conditions: complex multisignature or script spends can look identical to a simple single-key payment on the chain, so observers learn less. It also keeps fees low, in line with native SegWit for ordinary payments. Support is now broad but not universal, so a few older services still cannot send to a bc1p address. When they can, Taproot is generally the best choice for new receive addresses.

Why do Bitcoin addresses look different?

Bitcoin addresses look different because each type encodes a different locking script using a different checksum scheme, and the encoding is what produces the leading characters. Legacy and P2SH use Base58Check, which is why they start with 1 or 3 and mix upper and lower case. Native SegWit and Taproot use bech32 and bech32m, which are all lower case, start with bc1, and have stronger error detection so a mistyped character is far more likely to be caught before you send. The prefix is a quick, reliable signal of which script type and format you are dealing with. Every one of these is derived from the same kind of key material, and modern wallets generate them all from a single seed, which is why one extended public key can cover several address types at once.

Does the address type change my balance or security?

The address type does not change how many bitcoin you own or how safe they are from theft, only how the output is locked and how much it costs to spend. All four types are secured by the same elliptic-curve cryptography, and none is meaningfully easier to hack than another. What changes is efficiency and features: newer types spend cheaper and, in Taproot's case, reveal less. So moving to native SegWit or Taproot is about saving fees and gaining privacy, not about protecting funds that were somehow at risk on a legacy address.

How can I tell which address type an address is?

You can tell an address type from its first characters: 1 is legacy, 3 is P2SH or wrapped SegWit, bc1q is native SegWit, and bc1p is Taproot. For software that needs to be certain, the reliable way is to look up the address and read its decoded script type rather than pattern-match the prefix, because a 3 address could be a multisig or a wrapped SegWit output. A Bitcoin address lookup returns the script type alongside the balance, history and UTXOs, so your app classifies addresses correctly instead of guessing. For a deeper walk through what an address actually encodes, see our guide on reading a Bitcoin address.

Address types are Bitcoin's quiet evolution in plain sight. The prefix tells you the era and the cost: 1 for the original, 3 for the transitional, bc1q for cheap and modern, bc1p for the newest and most private. Same coins, better plumbing.