The Taproot upgrade also greatly enhanced privacy on the Bitcoin network by making it nearly impossible to identify the parties in a transaction. The Taproot BIP itself offered a novel way to execute BTC transactions by activating a Merkelized Alternative Script Tree (MAST), which encapsulates a complex array of BTC transactions into one hash, thereby significantly reducing transaction fees, minimizing memory use, and expanding the flexibility and utility of the Bitcoin network. Schnorr signatures are more secure and simpler to implement than ECDSA, and they make it possible for multiple transactions to be quickly verified in batches rather than being evaluated one at a time.īIP 342 leveraged the efficiency of Schnorr signatures to enable greater flexibility in future upgrades to Tapscript, the scripting language used for Taproot script paths. Schnorr signatures replaced the Elliptical Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), previously used to generate keys and verify transactions on the Bitcoin network. All these proposals were aimed at improving Bitcoin’s scalability and efficiency. Taproot was an amalgamation of three interconnected update proposals: BIP 340, which proposed the use of Schnorr signatures BIP 341, which was the Taproot proposal itself and BIP 342, which addressed the use of Tapscript. Taproot makes it possible to carry out multiple transactions from multiple parties to a single BTC wallet simultaneously. While smart contracts can be deployed on the Bitcoin network, they are costly, time-consuming, and severely limit the number of transactions that can be executed on the blockchain. The Taproot upgrade also expanded the Bitcoin network’s capacity for scripting programmable smart contracts, opening the door for decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the blockchain. The upgrade took three years to develop and implement and enabled the integration of features that improved the privacy, security, and efficiency of the Bitcoin network. Taproot Upgradeīut this last tweak aside, Taproot is still the most recent upgrade to the BTC network of any major significance. And if the practice continues for an extended period, confirmation scores may no longer reflect transaction finality on the network. This is because if more miners engage in fee sniping, fewer of them will work to extend the blockchain. The anti-fee sniping upgrades made on the Bitcoin network are meant to curb this practice, which, if left unchecked, can render the blockchain unusable. With BTC block subsidies diminishing, transaction fees will soon begin to dominate the network’s block rewards, and fee sniping may become a big problem in the Bitcoin mining space. This practice becomes an option for dishonest miners when they deem a previously mined block to be worth much more in transaction fees than what is currently in their own memory pool. According to the community’s GitHub repository, the most recent upgrade on the blockchain was a minor bug fix to improve privacy for off-chain protocols and to include an anti-fee sniping feature for Taproot transactions.įee sniping is when a BTC miner deliberately re-mines a block to wrestle away the transaction fee from the block’s original miner. Lately, there has not been any major upgrade work done on the Bitcoin network.
![bitcoin core taproot bitcoin core taproot](https://culturacion.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/bitcoin-2007769_1920-1536x1078.jpg)
Most BIPs usually emanate from a core group of developers, frequently referred to as “maintainers,” whose job is to monitor and improve the blockchain and its native cryptocurrency. If those proposals are approved by a majority of the Bitcoin community, then they are implemented. However, since the network has no centralized authority running it, the community uses a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) system to communicate ideas and propose technical changes to the network. How Upgrades Are Made on the Bitcoin Networkīitcoin is essentially an open-source network, meaning anyone can suggest changes to improve the blockchain.
![bitcoin core taproot bitcoin core taproot](https://crypto-currency-news.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Bitcoin-Magazine-taproot1b-1200x630-cropped-1024x538.png)
These upgrades range from minor, regular tweaks to significant changes such as Segregated Witness (SegWit) and Taproot. During that time, the network has undergone a series of upgrades to keep it in peak performance. The Bitcoin network has been around since January 3, 2009, when the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto mined the chain’s genesis block.