Taproot, one of Bitcoin's most important technological updates, will be activated next November, after receiving consensus approval from the network's miners.
After facing several challenges and obstacles, tap root finally finds its way to the net Bitcoin (BTC)This weekend, miners from the blockchain approved, by consensus, the activation of the update that will make Bitcoin a more secure, scalable and private network, in addition to improving its capabilities for the construction and implementation of smart contracts complex.
As shown on the web portal taproot.watch, dedicated to monitoring miner support for this upgrade, Taproot has been locked with over 92% signaling in favor of its activation. In total, at the time of writing, Bitcoin miners have mined 1.861 blocks in favor of Taproot and 32 blocks against, in the network’s current mining difficulty epoch.
Developer Jameson Lopp shows on his Twitter account a segment of the blocks mined in favor of this update. Taproot required only 1.815 blocks in favor of the 2.100 blocks that make up an epoch.
The activation of this technological update has been one of the most debated topics for Bitcoin developers in recent months. Initially, its implementation on mainnet was scheduled to occur at the end of March, but disagreements related to its activation mode generated certain delays. Now, developers plan to activate Taproot on Bitcoin next November.
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Third time's the charm!
On May 1st, Bitcoin developers implemented Speedy Trial, a quick activation test that combines Bitcoin Core code with Taproot and gives miners on the network enough time to adopt the new upgrade.
Since the implementation of this quick test, Bitcoin has seen 3 epochs, each with 2.100 blocks, lasting approximately 2 weeks per epoch. In the first two, the signaling in favor of Taproot failed, as miners failed to reach the minimum 1.815 blocks required to pass Taproot. However, in this third quick test, miners did manage to reach, and even exceed, the minimum number of blocks required.
When the team announced the activation of Speedy Trial they also reported that if the speedy trial was successful, then Taproot would arrive on the Bitcoin mainnet by November of this year.
Taproot, privacy and scalability for Bitcoin
As mentioned, Taproot is one of the most important technological upgrades that will take place on the Bitcoin network, perhaps after followed. Taproot will arrive on mainnet alongside the Schnorr firms, to provide privacy, scalability and security to the network.
Although Bitcoin is the most powerful blockchain in the industry, issues related to privacy, scalability, and security are not entirely solved, and Taproot will come to improve this. In addition, the implementation of this update also aims to improve Bitcoin's scripting language, so that the network can support much more complex smart contracts and be more efficient when it comes to developers building applications and protocols that function as innovative tools to bring the potential of cryptocurrency to the masses.
Bitcoin could also make a more efficient entry into the world of so-called DeFi, a complex ecosystem of decentralized finance that already has more than $110.000 billion in liquidity and promises to continue growing.
The new features that Taproot brings to the benefit of Bitcoin will propel the network to a new level of development.
Continue reading: “The Coinflip” will help developers choose how Taproot will be activated
