Brave Wallet launches Native SegWit Bitcoin feature, teases upcoming BRC-20 and Ordinals support

The latest update to Brave Browser (version 1.63) now lets users create and manage Native SegWit Bitcoin accounts, according to the firm’s announcement on Tuesday. The team is now aiming to roll out support for BRC-20 tokens and Ordinals later this year.

“Later this year, we’ll add support for more Bitcoin account types, which will allow users to store BRC-20 tokens and Ordinals in Brave Wallet—and make all of these features available across all desktop and mobile versions of Brave,” Brave's team noted.

According to Brave, Bitcoin has matured through various challenges since its inception and “proven itself as a resilient asset class.” The recent approval of several spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the US indicates growing institutional interest and adoption.

Additionally, with the rise of non-fungible tokens and decentralized finance, Bitcoin's use cases are expanding beyond its initial functions of peer-to-peer payments and a store of value.

With the latest offering, Brave aims to provide users with lower transaction fees and improved error detection compared to other Bitcoin account types. Brave Wallet now supports sending and receiving transactions from all types of Bitcoin addresses, including Legacy, Nested SegWit, Native SegWit (newly added), and Taproot.

James Mudgett, VP Web3 Products at Brave explained the goal of the expansion of features, saying:

“Our aim with Brave Wallet is to offer the most secure and privacy-considerate software wallet for everyday use. As the Bitcoin ecosystem expands with new apps and services, Brave Wallet will be there to put security and privacy first, to help keep users’ assets safe.”

Following the debut of Native SegWit Bitcoin accounts, Brave plans to integrate shielded Zcash transactions into Brave Wallet, as noted in the announcement. This integration will be part of Brave’s partnership with Zcash and the Filecoin Foundation.