Does the Bech32 address format decrease Bitcoin's possible address count?
Keep in mind that both types of addresses, assuming we are comparing P2PKH with P2WPKH addresses, are just encoding the hash of a public key. The hash used in both address types is a RIPEMD-160(SHA-256(public key)), so regardless of the encoding, the number of possible valid addresses remains the same. Each address format is simply encoded with a different checksum system, different version system, and different characters. But neither address format is actually ever used within bitcoin transactions themselves, they both just get &quot;unwrapped&quot; when given to a wallet.