The Taproot Upgrade On The Bitcoin Blockchain Has Been Activated

Taproot Upgrade Now Live On Bitcoin

The taproot upgrade went live on the Bitcoin blockchain yesterday, at 5:15 UTC (00:15 EST). The upgrade was activated at block 709,632, creating the possibility for developers to integrate new features into the blockchain to boost privacy, scalability and security.

The upgrade is the first major one on the Bitcoin blockchain since the introduction of Segregated Witness in 2017. The Taproot upgrade introduces Schnorr signatures that make complex transactions on Bitcoin, including those from multi-signature wallets, appear like any other transaction. As such, the upgrade improves the privacy and security of the transactions.

The activation of the Schnorr signatures also has implications for network scaling, as the Taproot upgrade eliminates the cryptographic framework ECDSA. Hence, boosting scalability on the Bitcoin blockchain.

The Taproot upgrade was locked in since June. At the time, more than 90% of the Bitcoin miners signaled their support for the upgrade. The waiting period between the lock-in and the activation has given miners and node operators enough time to fully upgrade to the latest version of Bitcoin Core, 21.1. The new version contains the merged code for Taproot. Once miners and node operators have migrated to the new version, they can enforce the new rules ensuring that it is possible to use the new type of transaction.

Bitcoin has been performing excellently in recent weeks. The leading cryptocurrency rallied to a new all-time high above $69k last week. However, it has retraced since then and is currently trading above the $65k level.

The short and medium-term outlooks for Bitcoin remain positive. Most analysts expect Bitcoin’s price to touch the $100k level before the end of the year. The cryptocurrency will need to rally by more than 35% over the next few weeks if it intends to reach that level.