Real-world use cases are one of the most important drivers for the adoption of any crypto ecosystem, the same is true for the Bitcoin network. Over the next six days, the Bitcoin protocol will undergo a soft fork – the Taproot upgrade – which aims to improve the privacy, efficiency and smart contract functions of the network.

Taproot is the first major upgrade to Bitcoin since August 2017, which saw the birth of Segregated Witness (SegWit) and led to the launch of the Lightning Network. The 2017 fork was primarily aimed at making transaction execution easier and improving Bitcoin’s network scalability.

The Taproot upgrade is to be introduced after a consensus of 90% has been reached among Bitcoin miners (mining nodes). Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg tweeted in June 2021:

WE’VE INCLUDED! ???? #Bitcoin #Taproot

Videos from: @TheGuySwann!https://t.co/rCUp5VNCBX pic.twitter.com/YFLMTenWW0

– Hampus Sjöberg (@hampus_s) June 12, 2021

The Taproot Soft Fork will be the hour of birth of the Merkelized Abstract Syntax Tree (MAST), which enables sender and recipient to sign a payment transaction together.

In addition, Taproot will also implement Schnorr Signatures, an algorithm that allows users to merge multiple signatures into a single one for a single transaction, reducing the inherent difference between regular and multiple signature transactions.

Schnorr’s signature scheme can also be used to change a user’s private and public keys in a verifiable manner to confirm the legitimacy of each transaction. According to Gregory Maxwell’s January 2018 original Taproot proposal:

“I believe this process will create the greatest possible level of anonymity for fixed party smart contracts through the simplest payments. This happens without incurring costs as a rule, without unrealistic technical requirements or interactions between the contracting parties and also without the need for long-term storage of other data. “

Schnorr signature scheme

At the time of writing, Taproot.Watch, a website created by Sjöberg, shows that the Taproot upgrade will be activated on November 14th after 1020 blocks have been successfully minted.

Just last month, the Bitcoin network’s daily billing value hit an all-time high after processing $ 31 billion in on-chain transactions.

The source: Twitter

Compared to early 2020, the network’s daily payment volume has increased 40 times, aided by the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin in El Salvador and other jurisdictions.

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Annie

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