Glossary

Ypub (Extended Public Key)

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A ypub is a form of extended public key (xpub) which follows an additional standard defined in BIP 49. Xpubs, ypubs, and zpubs all allow a wallet to generate a deterministic tree of public keys, but each form of extended public key instructs a wallet to derive different address types. Specifically, ypubs instruct a wallet to derive P2SH-wrapped P2WPKH addresses.

P2WPKH addresses are SegWit addresses, but in order to maintain backwards compatibility, SegWit addresses can be wrapped in P2SH addresses in order to allow older wallets to send to SegWit addresses.

Related Terms
Extended Public Key (Xpub)
An extended public key, or xpub, is a public key which can be used to derive child public keys as part of a hierarchical deterministic wallet.
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Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH)
Pay-to-Script-Hash (P2SH) is a type of transaction which allows for the spending of bitcoin based on the satisfaction of any script provided by the sender. P2SH is used for multisig and SegWit transactions.
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SegWit
Segregated Witness (SegWit) is a soft-fork upgrade to Bitcoin which was activated in 2017. SegWit fixed the problem of transaction malleability, and paved the way for the implementation of the Lightning Network and many other upgrades.
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Wrapped SegWit
Wrapped SegWit is a design implementation meant to enable wallets and other Bitcoin software to more easily support SegWit. Wrapped SegWit outputs look like P2SH outputs, but can be spent similarly to SegWit outputs.
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Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP)
A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) is a formal proposal to change Bitcoin. Upgrades, security improvements, industry standards, and more all begin as BIPs.
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Zpub (Extended Public Key)
A zpub is a form of extended public key (xpub) which follows an additional standard defined in BIP 84. Zpubs instruct a wallet to derive P2WPKH addresses.
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