Real-world use cases are one of the main adoption drivers of every crypto ecosystem, and this also applies to Bitcoin (Bitcoin) The internet. In the next 7 days, the Bitcoin protocol will undergo a soft fork in the name of the Taproot upgrade, aiming to improve the privacy, efficiency and smart contract capabilities of the network.

Taproot is Bitcoin’s first major upgrade since August 2017, when it introduced Segregated witness (SegWit) and lead to Launch of Lightning NetworkAlthough the previous fork was mainly aimed at repairing transaction malleability and improving Bitcoin’s network scalability, the Taproot upgrade was aimed at improving transaction efficiency, privacy, and supporting smart contract plans.

Taproot upgrade has been set to be implemented after deployment 90% consensus of Bitcoin miners (mining nodes)On the same day in June 2021, Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg made an announcement on Twitter:

We are locked! #Bitcoin #taproot

Video from: @TheGuySwann!https://t.co/rCUp5VNCBX pic.twitter.com/YFLMTenWW0

Hampus Sjöberg @hampus_s June 12, 2021

The Taproot soft fork will introduce the Merkel Abstract Syntax Tree (MAST), which introduces a condition that allows the sender and receiver to sign settlement transactions together.

In addition, Taproot will also implement Schnorr Signature, an algorithm that allows users to aggregate multiple signatures into one transaction, thereby reducing the inherently visible differences between regular transactions and multi-signature transactions.

Schnorr’s signature scheme can also be used to modify the user’s private key and public key to confirm the legitimacy of each transaction in a verifiable manner.According to the original text Taproot proposal Starting in January 2018, Gregory Maxwell proposed:

“I believe this structure will make the fixed-party smart contract look like the simplest payment method, thereby setting the maximum possible anonymity for the fixed-party smart contract. It does not require any overhead, call any rough or irrelevant The actual technology requires additional rounds of interaction between contract participants and does not require persistent storage of other data to achieve this.”

At the time of writing, Taproot.Watch is a website Constructed by Sjöberg, indicating that after successfully minting 1020 blocks, the Taproot upgrade will be activated on November 14.

related: Bitcoin network label daily settlement volume hits a record high

Just last month, the daily settlement value of the Bitcoin network hit a record high after the settlement of USD 31 billion worth of on-chain transactions.

Compared with the beginning of 2020, the daily online settlement volume has increased by 40 times. Mainstream Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador And other jurisdictions.

A value of $31 billion was settled in one day on the Bitcoin network last week.

This is a record high in the value of a single day’s settlement.

The global decentralized payment system continues to become more dominant. (HT @kerooke) pic.twitter.com/a6Q2FbPY3C

-Pump (@APompliano) October 10, 2021

“[The Bitcoin network is] It is currently about US$190,000 per second. In contrast, Visa provides US customers at US$130,000 per second and MasterCard’s US$55,000 per second,” said Willy Woo, an on-chain analyst.