On a side note, I came across a thread about Segwit-supported wallets and was wondering if they really help keep fees low. When using such wallets, will the more economical fee affect the speed of confirmation? Or is it identical to transactions performed on non-Segwit wallets? If it's just as fast, is it because certain blocks are used for Segwit transactions? If anyone can shed light to this, thanks a lot.
The pro of segwit is: It makes transactions smaller.
While you still have to pay the same feerate (x sat/B), you will (overall) pay less for your transaction (about 20-30% for P2SH-P2WPKH addresses [starting with 3...] - and even more for bech32 [starting with bc1..].
You can basically think of segwit as the 'removal of redundant information'. This makes transactions smaller -> Fees lower.
Unfortunately bech32 aren't accepted for withdrawals from most of the exchanges yet. But you still can always recieve/send your funds!
Which wallets support Segwit? I want to start using one, preferably a stable and trusted wallet with private keys known to the user only.
I would suggest electrum (https://electrum.org/#download) as a light weight wallet with some quite impressive features. Electrum supports both types of segwit addresses.
For 'maximum compability' you should use the nested P2SH addresses (starting with 3.. ). If you are more into saving fees / not really dependent on exchange withdrawals: bech32 would be the way to go!
For hardware wallets: Ledger/Trezor support segwit. Not sure about KeepKey.
