What happens when I try to spend a SegWit address that I don't have the private key for? I won't get into a block, right?
On a legacy node, that is a completely valid transaction because the legacy node has no conception of the witness data.
Is Segwit a hard fork then?
Replies (4)
Legacy transactions are still valid.
That's what I just said, but they will never be mined into a block because they don't have a valid signature according to SegWit.
UTXOs in SegWit addresses technically can be spent by anyone using a legacy node. The only reason none of those transactions make it into a block is because the miners enforce valid witness signatures due to version bit 2.
Legacy transactions are still valid and will be confirmed.
Maybe you don't understand the scenario I'm laying out here. A legacy node(version bit 1), NOT a legacy transaction.
This node finds a SegWit address with Bitcoin and produces a transaction without a signature. This is a valid transaction on the legacy node, but when broadcast to the network, anyone running version bit 2 or above will reject the transaction for not having a valid witness.
