The network of the main cryptocurrency in the world successfully activated the soft fork Taproot, after establishing an agreement to block “90 % of miners and mining pools between blocks 709,488 and 709,632”. In this way, the network launches the first change of the cryptocurrency protocol since the “introduction of SegWit in August 2017”.

With this update, the bitcoin network tries to improve its privacy and scripting capabilities, implementing the concept of the Merkelized Abstract Syntax Tree (MAST), according to what was expressed by a developer of the cryptocurrency, Hampus Sioberg, on his dedicated portal Taproot.

According to Hampus Sjoberg, a bitcoin developer, MATS could facilitate the efficiency and privacy of contracts because it would only reveal some aspects of the contract once it is exhausted. He additionally considers that the activation of Taproot demonstrated that the cryptocurrency network can perform updates, a fact that notably favors its prolongation, noting: “I think that is the biggest victory,” he said.

Taproot, improving privacy

Sjoberg explained that with the use of Taproot for the Lightning Network, the payment channels may be indistinguishable in normal transactions: “It is not possible to know if a Taproot transaction is a normal payment or if it belongs to a Lightning channel,” of great importance for the fungibility of virtual currency.

However, the developer highlights that the update marks the end of “Speedy Trial deployments and future updates to the Bitcoin network will require the provision of new methods.” Taproot opens up a world of possibilities, but the first thing it should perform is a “MuSig 2” transaction, sharing tips for your fellow bitcoin developers.

M. Rodríguez

Source: es.cointelegraph.com