Bitcoin Taproot upgrade finally achieves activation lock-in!

The much-anticipated Bitcoin Taproot upgrade passed the Speedy Trial, which was a signaling period which gauged support for the upgrade from bitcoin’s mining sector. Since SegWit, Taproot has been touted as the next significant upgrade for Bitcoin.

Data from Taproot.watch, a webpage created by Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg, released an interesting yet hilarious video to announce the completion of the lock-in stage.

On the official page, it read:

“This period has reached 1815 Taproot signaling blocks, which are required for lock-in.”

Different mining pools tweeted their support for the upgrade on their respective platforms with Slush Pool being the first to do so.

AntPool also supported the upgrade.

What’s next?

Bitcoin core developer Pieter Wuille further elaborated on the path leading to the full activation step for Taproot in a series

“As of block 687284, Taproot signalling has reached 1815 blocks this period, guaranteeing that absent very deep reorgs, it is guaranteed to lock in. Following that, it will activate at block 709632, probably around mid-November 2021.”

He also addressed that ‘there is a lot of work left of course’, which included:

a) PSBT extensions to communicate Taproot keys/scripts/signatures,

b) MuSig2 standardization so the software can cooperate in signing,

c) Output descriptors,

Why is it so important?

Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Digital Holdings stated:

“With this upgrade, you’ll see Bitcoin to be the settlement network. Funds are transferred from one institution to another, say one bank to another.”

He added,

“The update would lower the data size of smart contracts, in turn lowering transaction costs. Taproot is also expected to enhance smart contract functionality and efficiency.”

Jeremy Rubin, a Bitcoin Core contributor and founder of Judica projected a similar optimistic narrative,

“With taproot, you get optimization of Bitcoin, much different from how people know Bitcoin today- little too inefficient or reveal too much information about what you’re trying to do. Taproot helps to be private and efficient.”