Developers implement Taproot activation method in Bitcoin Core

Developers implemented in the May release of Bitcoin Core the Speedy Trial activation method, which will allow miners to approve or reject the deployment of Taproot in the shortest possible time.

Merged PR from Andrew Chow: Speedy trial activation parameters for Taproot https://t.co/HG5sS8OTkD

— Bitcoin Merges (@BitcoinMerges) April 15, 2021

The mechanism implies a three-month window during which 90% of mined blocks must signal support for the update. This will mean that roughly 90% of miners agree to adopt the new rules. If the required threshold is reached, Taproot will activate within the following three months — otherwise the update will not take place.

In March 2021, developer Jeremy Rubin stated that, if successful, Taproot would activate in mid-November.

This update will be among the most significant in the history of the first cryptocurrency. In addition to improving scalability and privacy, it is aimed at enhancing network functionality and coin fungibility.

In November 2020, mining pool Antpool backed Taproot. Later a similar decision was adopted by Binance Pool.

In January 2021, a revised version of the Bitcoin Core client was released, which included the final version of the code Schnorr/Taproot.

Earlier ForkLog explained why some developers described the upcoming Bitcoin upgrade as a potential threat to privacy.

For more on the methods of activating updates in the Bitcoin network, see our special feature.