Bech32
Bech32 is a segwit address format specified by BIP 0173. This address format is also known as "bc1 addresses". Bech32 is more efficient with block space.
While this address format has been included in some implementations, as of December 2017, the address format is not recommended for use until more software supports the format.
As of June 2020 Bech32 is supported in many popular wallets and is the preferred address scheme.
See the page Bech32 adoption to track adoption.
Examples
Examples of the address format being used on mainnet are the TXIDs 4ef47f6eb681d5d9fa2f7e16336cd629303c635e8da51e425b76088be9c8744c and 514a33f1d46179b89e1fea7bbb07b682ab14083a276979f91038369d1a8d689b. And addresses bc1qar0srrr7xfkvy5l643lydnw9re59gtzzwf5mdq and bc1qc7slrfxkknqcq2jevvvkdgvrt8080852dfjewde450xdlk4ugp7szw5tk9.
See Also
- Talk by Pieter Wuille the new bech32 address format (March 2017) https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/62fydd/pieter_wuille_lecture_on_new_bech32_address_format/
- Comment by maaku7 explaining how bech32 addresses improve the security of (for example) multisignature https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/74tonn/bech32_native_segwit_address_already_used_on_the/dqlogru/