SegWit means segregated witness, and is the practice of abstracting transaction signatures from the bitcoin transaction. This frees up the block for more transactions, and if you have migrated your wallet to the SegWit protocol you will enjoy reduced fees on transactions. ShapeShift and Coinbase already natively support SegWit.

See this ShapeShift Help Center article, What is SegWit? for more information.

Lightning Network

Building on features of SegWit, Bitcoin developers have created the Lightning Network. This network works in tandem with the base blockchain, by depositing funds to establish a channel. The application manages its users transactions without establishing custody of funds, until at some point the balances that the channel is keeping track of are published and broadcast as an official version on the blockchain. Generally this is meant for scalability and allows for micro transactions which would normally be dwarfed by their transaction fees.

Lightning Apps (lApps)

Some prominent apps utilizing this layer 2 protocol include the following:

Additional lapps are listed at lapps.co.

Units of Bitcoin

Unit Abbreviation Decimal (BTC) Alternate names Info
Algorithmic maximum   20,999,999.9769   Calculation
tam-bitcoin   2,814,749.76710656   1,0000,0000 tonal
mega-bitcoin MBTC 1,000,000   Rare in context
kilo-bitcoin kBTC 1,000   Rare in context
hecto-bitcoin hBTC 100   Rare
Initial block subsidy   50   Until block 210000
bong-bitcoin ᵇTBC 42.94967296   1,0000 tonal
Current block subsidy   6.25 block As of halving day 2020, block 630000
deca-bitcoin daBTC 10   Rare
mill-bitcoin ᵐTBC 2.68435456   1000 tonal
bitcoin BTC 1 coin SI base unit
san-bitcoin ˢTBC 0.16777216   100 tonal
deci-bitcoin dBTC 0.1   Rare
ton-bitcoin ᵗTBC 0.01048576   10 tonal
centi-bitcoin cBTC 0.01 bitcent Formerly frequent2
milli-bitcoin mBTC 0.001 millibit, millie Occasional
bitcoin TBC 0.00065536   Tonal base unit
bitcoin-ton TBCᵗ 0.00004096   0.1 tonal
bitcoin-san TBCˢ 0.00000256   0.01 tonal
micro-bitcoin μBTC 0.000001 bit Frequent
bitcoin-mill TBCᵐ 0.00000016   0.001 tonal
    0.0000001 finney3  
bitcoin-bong TBCᵇ 0.00000001   0.0001 tonal
sat 0.00000001 satoshi Blockchain value  
msat 0.00000000001 millisatoshi4 Payment channel value  

I’m less enamored by bitcoin, because it only allows you to make transactions, and often has enormous price swings. For information about a cryptocurrency with some more utility and the ability to build upon its foundation, see Ethereum.

Bitcoin shares the same benefits of all cryptocurrencies (the mathematical proofs), in that you can secure ownership through maintenance of your private keys. Also in general, it may appreciate compared to USD as inflation occurs.

Coinbase is offering bitcoin for new users who buy or sell $100 USD worth of any cryptocurrency.