In laymen’s terms, the Taproot upgrade is a way to make Bitcoin applications cheaper and making the network secure than before. It is the biggest fork to make changes to the core cryptography of the flagship blockchain project since Segwit. Since the introduction of the idea, this is the first time that the milestone has been achieved by activating the 90% hash rate signaled with the program.
There is also a website set up to monitor the progress of the upgrade called Taproot.watch. Hampus Sjöberg, the developer of the website, shows that the initial lock-in stage for the upgrade has been accomplished. All bonafide mining rigs lit a green signal for the launch of an upgrade. Among these miners, Slush Pool led the way. Considering the Slush Pool was the first one to solve the cryptic puzzle and block 687285 it does not come as a big surprise.
The Leading Mining Pools have come Forward in Support of the Taproot Upgrade from the very Beginning
In terms of hast rate share, Ant and F2 pools are considered the leading Bitcoin mining operators. Both of these giants came forward in support of the Taproot upgrade when it was first proposed. Pieter Wuille is a Bitcoin core developer who told crypto journalists that the activation would take place autonomously once the upgrade would be locked in. As per the BIP341, the trigger point for launch would be block height 709632. This point was chosen to make give miners ample time to comply with the protocol.
Wuille also told the media that the launch trigger is expected to go off somewhere in November 2021. He further added that it would make changes in the Bitcoin script to decrease the computation prices lower in some respects. These changes would affect components like multisig applications and layer-two networks. As per the blockchain developer, Taproot would hide the spending rules and make the blockchain more private.
Bitcoin Hash Rate is Dropping, and the Transaction Counts are Increasing per Block
The latest Bitcoin block, 687249, has become the center of debate and controversy in the crypto community. As China has gone on to implement a blanket ban on the biggest Bitcoin mining operations in the region, the hash rates of the blockchain have decreased significantly. The immediate impact of the decline can be viewed on the latest mined block that hosted about 4075 transactions.
In comparison to Bitcoin blocks mined after June 11, this number is twice as high. However, in terms of an average Bitcoin block, the number of transactions is as much as four times taller. According to an expert, as Bitcoin supply has been decreased in the market, more transactions would have to host in a single block.
