mining pool
Bitcoin Taproot upgrade finally locked-in, activation set for November
With Taproot achieving the 90% critical consensus mark among mining nodes, all is now set for Bitcoin soft fork activation later in November.
The Taproot upgrade has achieved the first significant milestone on the road to activation as 90% of the Bitcoin (BTC) mining hash rate signaled for the protocol improvement within the current difficulty epoch.
Data from Taproot.watch, a webpage created by Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg, shows the lock-in stage is now completed.
All recognized mining pools signaled for the upgrade with Slush Pool being the first to do so. It is perhaps fitting that Slush Pool also mined block 687285 that sealed the Taproot lock-in.
TAPROOT LOCKED IN AT BLOCK 687285 BY SLUSHPOOL pic.twitter.com/FFDdibtmGt
— pourteaux (@pourteaux) June 12, 2021
AntPool and F2Pool — the top two Bitcoin mining pools by hash rate share — were also among one of the earliest supporters of the Taproot activation in the BTC mining arena
In a conversation with Cointelegraph Bitcoin core developer Pieter Wuille explained the activation step for Taproot, stating: “According to BIP341, once locked in, activation is automatic at block height 709632 - expected around November 14, 2021.”
Wuille also commented on the significance of Taproot, adding:
“It's the first consensus change since Segwit activated in august 2017. It extends Bitcoin's script capabilities in ways that make certain things cheaper (especially more complex applications like multisig and layer 2 things), and somewhat more private by often hiding what the exact spending rules were.”
According to Wuille, the activation in November is only the beginning as the real work will be building the software to leverage the benefits of the protocol improvement.
June 12’s historic significance for Bitcoin has also moved beyond Taproot as the day seen a record number of transactions mined in a single block. Data from blockchain explorer Blockchair shows 4,075 transactions in block height 687249.
This record figure is almost twice the average transactions per block recorded on June 11 and is four times the typical transaction count for Bitcoin blocks.
With hash rate declining amid mining restrictions in China, Saturday’s transaction count average might be due to a slowdown in block production forcing more transactions to be included in a single block.
Bitcoin miner Poolin immortalizes El Salvador’s BTC adoption on the blockchain
El Salvador accepting Bitcoin as legal tender is now forever etched on the blockchain as mining pool Poolin adds a newspaper headline to block 686,938.
As is par for the course for Bitcoin (BTC), El Salvador becoming the first nation-state to adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender is now immortalized on the blockchain.
Data from blockchain explorer service Blockchair shows block 686,938 bearing the message “asamblea aprueba la ley bitcoin” — meaning "assembly approves Bitcoin law" — which is the front-page headline carried by El Salvadoran daily Diario El Salvador on Wednesday.
Esta es la portada de #DiarioElSalvador de este miércoles 9 de junio del 2021. #DiarioES #DES pic.twitter.com/D2tgNG2TPK
— Diario El Salvador (@elsalvador) June 9, 2021
Poolin, the third-largest Bitcoin mining pool by hash rate, was responsible for mining the transaction block that contained the message.
This El Salvador headline announcing #Bitcoin has become legal tender, was just embedded into the blockchain. It will now remain there for all of eternity. pic.twitter.com/DtHiFDB4XM
— Documenting Bitcoin (@DocumentingBTC) June 9, 2021
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, El Salvador’s legislature passed a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender in the country. Meanwhile, a wave of support for BTC among key government figures in Latin America continues to emerge to the excitement of several Bitcoin proponents.
Reacting to the growing trend, Chris Burniske, partner at blockchain-focused venture capital fund Placeholder VC, tweeted that move could be a means for Latin American nations to “strike back at dollars and debt.”
Earlier this week, former United States President Donald Trump doubled down on his Bitcoin stance, stating that BTC was competing with the U.S. dollar.
Poolin’s commemoration of El Salvador’s historic Bitcoin legalization move comes over a decade after BTC creator Satoshi Nakamoto etched The Times' front-page headline from Jan. 3, 2009, on the blockchain's genesis block:
“The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”
A few blocks in the Bitcoin blockchain also contain messages and other references meant to memorialize certain occasions.
When block height 666,666 came around back in January, the “winning miner” included a verse from the Bible: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good - Romans 12:21.”
In April, Coinbase had Bitcoin mining pool F2Pool embed a New York Times article in block 679,187.
Almost half of Bitcoin hash rate signaling for Taproot activation
Major Bitcoin miners have begun signaling for Taproot activation that will improve scalability and privacy for the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
The road to the Taproot upgrade finally coming in 2021 is already underway, with major Bitcoin (BTC) mining pools already signaling support.
According to data from Taproot.watch, a webpage created by Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg, Taproot signaling now accounts for about 44% of the total Bitcoin hashing power as of the time of writing.
AntPool and F2Pool — the two largest Bitcoin mining pools by hash rate — are among the earliest supporters of the Taproot activation in the mining arena. Other pools in support are Foundry USA and Slush Pool, with the latter responsible for mining the first signaling block.
Based on Bitcoin’s consensus, Taproot activation will only go forward if 90% of all mined blocks include an activation signal within a difficulty adjustment window (2,016 blocks).
This consensus agreement must happen in one of the difficulty epochs between now and Aug. 11 to be locked in as a network upgrade for November. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the current difficulty period began on May 1 after a 12% downward adjustment.
As of publishing time, only 97 signaling blocks have emerged in the current window. Meanwhile, miners responsible for 382 blocks have elected to not include a “signal bit.”
The “no votes” by these miners, which account for 19% of the 2,016 blocks in the current difficulty window, means that the Taproot activation cannot be locked in until at least the next difficulty epoch.
However, given the reported support by miners for Taproot, the activation — touted to be the most significant for Bitcoin in over four years — is expected to proceed without as much controversy as the Segregated Witness saga of 2016 and 2017.
Taproot as an upgrade to the Bitcoin protocol will reportedly enable users to mask additional spending conditions, which could have significant implications for Bitcoin’s smart contract capabilities.
The ability to hide additional spending conditions beyond the ones triggered by the transacting parties could also improve Bitcoin’s privacy.
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