Another major soft fork has been activated on the Bitcoin blockchain, which is aimed at increasing the privacy and reliability of the blockchain in the long term.
On Sunday, November 14th at 8:15 am Moscow time, block 709 632, the largest update in the Bitcoin blockchain this year was activated. Taproot is the most important update since the Lightning Network and Segregated Witness (SegWit) updates.
The Taproot update aims to improve the privacy and security of the Bitcoin protocol. The soft fork will allow the use of Schnorr signatures in the blockchain. This solution will reduce the load on the blockchain while increasing its simplicity, efficiency, and security.
The technology creates a master key to combine several signatures confirming transactions into one. This makes it possible to perform transactions with multiple signatures and multiple input (UTXI) more convenient, faster and cheaper. The Taproot update aims to improve Bitcoin’s scripting language with the Merkelized Abstract Syntax Tree (MAST) concept. This solution opens up new opportunities for smart contracts in Bitcoin and makes them easier to scale globally.
Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg explained the purpose of the Merclized Abstract Syntax Trees (MAST) included in the Taproot update.
“MAST will help make smart contracts more efficient and confidential by disclosing only the relevant portions when spending.”
Hampus Sjöberg believes that renewals of the magnitude of Taproot happen “once every 100 years”. According to him, this update “will lead to a more interchangeable and reliable blockchain in the long term.” To implement the Taproot update and achieve 90% consensus, miners and mining pools used the Speedy Trial method.
