The first Bitcoin upgrade in four years, called Taproot, has gone live.
The last Bitcoin upgrade was in 2017 and it was described as the ‘last civil war’ because of the contentious ideological divide separating adherents.
Taproot upgrade which has near universal support means that greater transaction privacy and efficiency will be available. The upgrade will unlock the potential for smart contracts, which can be used to eliminate middlemen from transaction. It means greater privacy, because individual keys won’t have as much exposure on the chain.
Bitcoin miner, Alejandro De La Torre disclosed that the Taproot will add something known as Schnorr signatures, which essentially makes multi-signature transactions unreadable.
Presently, Bitcoin uses something called the “Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm,” which creates a signature from the private key that controls a Bitcoin wallet, and ensures that Bitcoin can only be spent by the rightful owner.
