Bitcoin’s biggest update in four years
Bitcoin’s most significant update since 2017, Taproot, was activated on 14 November and integrated new features that improve privacy, scalability, and security on the Bitcoin network.
The update enables Merkelized Alternative Script Tree (MAST), designed to bolster the efficiency and privacy of smart contracts by revealing only the relevant details of the contract when spending Bitcoin.
The Taproot update has been expected since June this year when 90% of Bitcoin miners signalled their support, Gadgets360 reported.
MAST replaces pay to script hash (P2SH). Both are mechanisms of locking transactions until specific conditions are met.
P2SH allows anyone to see how a locked transaction’s conditions could be met, whereas MAST hides all the requirements except those that were met when a transaction was processed.
Another notable feature of the Taproot update is the introduction of Schnorr signatures, which will allow more complex transactions to be made on the Bitcoin network.
Previously, the network used the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA). Taproot’s Schnorr scheme users linear signatures, promising to make transactions faster, smaller, and cheaper than ECDSA.
Essentially, the new update makes transactions from wallets with multiple signatures appear as any other transactions, improving the security and privacy of these transactions.
According to mining and trading platform Nicehash: “Schnorr’s signature scheme can aggregate multiple signatures and output them as a single signature. This increases privacy and lowers transaction size and fees.”
It will take some time until the upgrades take full effect, and Bitcoin traders will be unable to make these transactions until the wallet they use adds support for the update.
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