The activation code for the Taproot and Schnorr Signatures Update – Speedy Trial – has been included in Bitcoin Core. The first phase of the update activation is scheduled for May.
Bitcoin Core developers Fanquake and Marco Falke added two pull requests to the client code created by AJ Townes and Andrew Chow. Now that the Speedy Trial has been merged with the Bitcoin Core source code, the Taproot update is ready for the first phase of activation in May.
While most community members were in favor of rolling out the update, it took a long time to agree on the technical details of activation. Just last month, Bitcoin developers and community members decided on a timeline to roll out the Taproot update. Preparations for code activation will begin in May via the Speedy Trial, and the update itself will be activated in November.
Taproot and Schnorr Signatures are the biggest Bitcoin updates since SegWit. However, the developers could not decide on the details of activating the update and as a result applied the “draw” in the Bitcoin blockchain to complete discussions that began a year ago. Based on the draw, the Taproot update activation timeline will be measured using the Elapsed Median Time Past (MTP), not the block height.
In case of support of 90% of miners, activation of Speedy Trial will be successful and the update will be fixed three months after the start of voting. In another three months, Taproot will be activated on the Bitcoin mainnet. Voting is expected to begin on May 7 and if miners demonstrate sufficient support, Taproot will be fixed for deployment on August 7 and activated on November 15.
If miners do not express sufficient support for Taproot, then the update will not be activated on the network. However, at the moment, miners are expressing their approval of the update and the chances of its activation in November are quite high.
