It has been four years since the last Bitcoin update, and finally, we are seeing the long-awaited taproot update unveiled and officially becoming part of bitcoin’s blockchain. Among many new things that Taproot update brings to the table, the most prominent ones are an upgrade to the efficiency of the transactions, better user and information privacy protection, and above all, the inclusion of smart contracts on BTC’s blockchain.
This will help Bitcoin especially to become an extremely powerful contender in the future among Ethereum and many other cryptocurrencies that are at present or will at some point in the future offer smart contracts. The very essence of this taproot update can be divided into three consecutive elements. But before diving into these and extending each and every one of these upgrades, it is important to note that block number 709632 was selected many years ago as a dedicated block at which the taproot update for Bitcoin will get updated.
Taproot Upgrade will Enhance the Overall Functionality of Bitcoin Blockchain
The block was reached not much time ago, and as soon as it hit that specific block number on bitcoin’s blockchain, the taproot update was triggered. The first elementary change that this update brings is a new signature scheme by the name of Schnorr signature scheme. This is way more elegant and lightweight as compared to the previous signature scheme in place, and it lends anonymity to every address on bitcoin’s blockchain regardless of the fact that some of them are smart contracts and some of them are crypto transactions. But thanks to this new signature, no one can tell them apart. The second important aspect of this update is the adoption of Tapscript, which is a new programming language.
This language will enhance the ability of bitcoin’s blockchain to get updated more easily into the future and increase the functionality of smart contracts. The third and last important aspect of the taproot upgrade is that it brings a significant amount of improvements in the overall structure of Bitcoin transactions. First of all, the data size of these smart contracts is lowered significantly, putting less stress on the blockchain and making the recording aspects of this whole thing more bulletproof. Smart contracts to this date remain a prominent part of Ether’s blockchain, but with this new upgrade knitted into the Bitcoin blockchain, Ether should expect competition.
