Bitcoin address types (legacy, SegWit, Taproot)

Bitcoin has several address formats, and the first characters tell you which one you are looking at.

Legacy (P2PKH) addresses start with "1". They were the original format and have the highest fees. Script hash (P2SH) addresses start with "3" and are often used for multisig or for "wrapped" SegWit. Native SegWit (bech32, P2WPKH) addresses start with "bc1q", use only lowercase characters, have better error detection and lower fees. Taproot (bech32m, P2TR) addresses start with "bc1p" and support Schnorr signatures and more private complex scripts.

All these formats are interoperable: you can send from any type to any other. What you cannot do is send bitcoin to an address on another network, and some old services may not recognise newer formats. Modern wallets default to native SegWit or Taproot. Always double-check the first and last few characters of an address before sending, because clipboard malware and address-poisoning scams target crypto users.