Bitcoin's Taproot Update Launched

Bitcoin's Taproot update launched. Taproot is seen as the most important update in Bitcoin since SegWit in 2017.

Described as the most important update in Bitcoin since SegWit in 2017, Taproot was officially activated at block 709632. Taproot, which has been discussed and developed for many years, was an update that increased privacy, scalability and security on the Bitcoin network. Taproot, which will also provide smart contract flexibility, was locked in June and the process for its activation began in November. Taproot was first introduced in 2018 by Greg Maxwell, one of the leading developers of Bitcoin. It was added to Bitcoin's code library by Pieter Wuille in October 2020, after extensive testing. With Taproot, there will now be a new type of cryptographic signature in Bitcoin. This signature type, called Schnorr, combines scripts to reduce their size and enables flexible creation and execution of multi-signature transactions. Multi-signature transactions are indistinguishable from normal Bitcoin transactions, thus gaining both efficiency and privacy. The number of data in blocks is reduced, freeing up space for more transactions. Taproot has no influence on Bitcoin's price policy. Bitcoin (BTC), the largest cryptocurrency with its market value, is trading at levels close to 65 thousand dollars at the time of the update.