Taproot Lock-in Achieved — Bitcoin Network Set to Activate Biggest Upgrade in Four Years

The ‘Speedy Trial’ lock-in period for the Bitcoin network upgrade Taproot is now complete. Data from taproot.watch details the lock-in has been achieved and it was locked in at block height 687,285 and mined by the mining pool Slushpool.

Bitcoin Taproot Lock-in Complete at Block Height 687,285

• Taproot is coming this November as the web portal taproot.watch indicates that the lock-in period of signaling has finished. “This period has reached 1815 Taproot signaling blocks, which is required for lock-in.”
• The Taproot upgrade is considered one of the largest upgrades in four years since the activation of Segregated Witness (Segwit) back in 2017.
• Poolin executive Alejandro De La Torre tweeted about the milestone after the signaling finished. “Taproot has locked-in,” De La Torre said. “Excellent work miners. Congratulations bitcoiners. Bitcoin protocol upgrade now set to activate in November.

• When activated in November, Taproot addresses will be able to leverage Schnorr signatures in contrast to Bitcoin’s current elliptic curve digital signature algorithm (ECDSA). Because Schnorr signatures are more compact than ECDSA it could improve scaling.
• Other features besides the bump in scaling expected from Taproot activation include more complex BTC smart contracts and decision-based transactions. Alongside this, it’s been said that Taproot and Schnorr signatures will also allow for more privacy when transacting.
• Taproot enhancements also include the ability for BTC participants to utilize Merkle trees.

• Bitcoin Core versions 0.21.1 and versions above this release will be able to upgrade to Taproot in November. There will be roughly five months for miners and other node operators who want to transition to Taproot.
• Taproot, however, is a soft fork which means similar to Segwit, network participants do not necessarily have to upgrade to the new ruleset.
• The founder of the 13exchange, Nikita Vassev, was pleased with the lock-in completion and tweeted about the landmark occasion on Twitter. “There was a tremendous amount of work done on activation,” Vassev wrote on Friday. “I was impressed with how the pools joined in, and it is our common achievement.”