Much-awaited Bitcoin Taproot softfork is set to take off in just a few hours.
There is so much excitement around Taproot’s Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIP) as it is the biggest upgrade in around four years, since SegWit. But, it is also important to understand that the softfork will not magically improve the network’s capabilities and privacy overnight.
Bitcoin programmer and technical expert Jimmy Song explained what will happen once the update takes off. He said in a recent interview with Natalie Brunell,
“A lot of wallet providers have yet to integrate taproot. So, it’s going to take a little bit of time and the benefits will be years out from now. Not like completely immediately.”
However, he does note that some changes would appear right after the update. As part of the changes, Taproot is also expected to enhance Bitcoin’s smart contract capabilities, while bringing in more privacy on the network.
“And you can have all of these conditions sort of like, outlined very easily. So it makes…’ composability of the smart contract’ gets easier because of Taproot.”
Additionally, Song used the analogy around “house locks” to comment about increased security post-Taproot.
“I would say that no one can tell what kind of lock you have on your house.”
Another significant change could be cheaper transactions on the Blockchain in “certain type of use cases.” Song explained that by taking less space on the chain, users can eventually end up paying marginally lesser fees. But, that will not be the case always.
“Paradoxically, in some others, you’re going to pay a little bit more because it’s going to actually require a little more block space. But overall, it’s an efficiency gain.”
And, all these changes require miner consensus. Which, Song describes as a “tremendous amount of work.” But, a lot of user interface improvements could be on the way with Taproot. And as per Song, it will take a few “years.”
“But yeah, rest assured this is going to be an interesting upgrade and will give a lot more fail-safes for the sort of like users shooting themselves in the foot.”
Can Bitcoin Taproot make way for MooNovember
Crypto trading firm QCP Capital wrote in a Telegram update,
“BTC price has no doubt been supported by the upcoming Taproot upgrade…”
The firm also added that since this will ‘improve a whole string of key functions,’ QCP Capital is ‘keeping long BTC into this major event.’
It is also worth noting that the crypto universe recently hit a $3 trillion market cap. And, soon after, Bitcoin hovered close to a new ATH of $69,000 before a retreat. At press time, the token was stable over $64k.
However, the short spike seen by Bitcoin due to high inflation in the United States, CryptoQuant noted that liquidations pushed the prices down.
Meanwhile, despite that, Analyst PlanB is keeping his December price estimates for Bitcoin close to $135,000.
As you know S2F model predicts ~$100K average this halving cycle (white line). I dumbed that down to "$100K Dec 2021 close" because to make $100K average, mid-cycle we should be above that average. My floor model (not S2F) predicts $135K Dec close: roughly in line with S2F model. pic.twitter.com/Oel7HmsmPr
— PlanB (@100trillionUSD) November 11, 2021
