The developers behind Bitcoin ABC, a software implementation for Bitcoin Cash, released the new CashAddr update in their latest release.

CashAddr is designed to prevent users from mixing BTC and BCH addresses, protecting their funds by changing the appearance of BCH addresses.

Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin had identical address formats after the difficult exercise of BCH last year, which meant that some users would accidentally send funds in a currency to an address on the chain of the other currency.

This, in turn, meant that these users would lose their funds, temporarily or permanently, as a result. Amaury Sechet, chief developer of Bitcoin ABC, announced last November that he was working on a new address format to prevent this problem from occurring, describing it as an "urgent need".

In an email he stated:

"The use of a new format will prevent users from mistakenly sending money on the wrong channel. It also accepts payloads up to $ 25. at 512 bits, which ensures that we can deploy a safer way to enter into multi-party smart contracts in the future, and uses a version field to ensure that we can encode new features into these addresses in the future. future without having to use a new format. "

On Tuesday, the new version of the software was released, including CashAddr.

The change is mainly cosmetic. The implementation of the new address requires exchanges, traders and portfolio providers to update their software, but does not require a rigid fork or each node is also updated to the new version.

The group has also released a conversion tool to help users adapt to the format change.

In its original announcement, Sechet proposed January 14 as a reasonable date for suppliers to update their software.

In addition to ending address confusion, CashAddr includes more efficient error detection and makes it easier to encode the new address format – in particular, users can now encode addresses in QR codes, making them easier to share.

Bitcoin picture of cash via Shutterstock

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