Rare is the month when Bitcoin, for one reason or another, is not in the news. This one has been for the announcement of the president of El Salvador when he indicated that Bitcoin would be legal currency in the country, but there is another news worth noting.
The first bitcoin exchange in four years has just been approved, an exchange called Taproot, which has just been approved by miners around the world. Taproot was first proposed by Gregory Maxwell, the former chief technology officer of Blockstream.
The update will go live in November, and focuses on two pillars: greater privacy and better transaction efficiency, although it includes another important point, it will unlock smart contracts, a feature unique to the technology it uses, blockchain, and which eliminates intermediaries from transactions. This feature also makes the function more compact, gaining privacy and flexibility. The update also includes a new scripting language called Tapescript.
Taproot will be locked-in for a November activation in the next 36 hours.
A big success for #Bitcoin, Taproot introduces a second signature algo (Schnorr) and significant privacy features.
Also a big success for the "Speedy Trial" activation method with < 8 weeks to lock-in.
— Andreas (BEWARE of giveaway scams!) (@aantonop) June 10, 2021
Popular bitcoin evangelist Andreas Antonopoulos commented on the news on his Twitter:
The taproot will be locked for a November activation in the next 36 hours. A big hit for Bitcoin, Taproot features a second signature algorithm (Schnorr) and significant privacy features.
The last Bitcoin update, Segwit, was in 2017 and was quite controversial. Not so much in this case, as Taproot has almost universal support (more than 90 percent of miners approve of it).
