- Taproot is the most significant upgrade to the Bitcoin network since the SegWit upgrade of 2017.
- Bitcoin mempools continued to be empty even throughout the recent price discovery, implying scope for increased retail activity.
- Analysts affirm that on-chain activity in BTC is expected to rise, pushing Bitcoin price higher.
Taproot activation, an upgrade that promises to expand Bitcoin’s smart contract flexibility and enhance privacy on the BTC network, was confirmed in June 2021 after 90% support from qualified blocks mined over two weeks. The upgrade is set to go live on November 16.
Bitcoin Taproot upgrade to boost the network’s security and privacy
The Bitcoin network’s most significant upgrade was the adoption of SegWit in 2017. SegWit helped Bitcoin scale by enabling the launch of the Lightning network.
By increasing the block size limit in the BTC blockchain, SegWit helped by pulling signature data from Bitcoin transactions. Segregation of transaction signatures still meant that the signatures were recorded on the blockchain.
The Taproot upgrade, ensures higher privacy by combining public keys and signatures into “threshold public keys” and “threshold signatures.” This makes them indistinguishable from regular transactions and increases the privacy of participants in the BTC network.
Two weeks from now, Bitcoin’s Taproot upgrade will activate at block 709,632.
Analysts have noted uncertainty in the BTC price trend and have predicted it may last until the end of November.
Alex Gladstein, cryptocurrency analyst and Chief strategy officer at Human Rights Foundation, believes that the Taproot upgrade is certainly not priced in Bitcoin yet.
Taproot: definitely not priced inhttps://t.co/HatKMSRGrO
— Alex Gladstein ⚡ (@gladstein) October 26, 2021