Bitcoin advocates celebrated the successful implementation of the Taproot upgrade on November 14, 2021, at block height 709,632 (difficulty period 352). This was one of the most anticipated changes since Segregated Witness (SegWit) in 2017, and its activation marks a seven-year development journey.
Core Benefits: Schnorr Signatures, MAST, and Tapscript
Taproot combines with the Schnorr signature scheme to deliver three major advantages: provable security (strong unforgeability under chosen message attack), non-malleability (eliminating ECDSA malleability), and linearity (enabling key aggregation for efficient multi-signatures). The upgrade also introduces MAST (Merklized Alternative Script Tree) and a new scripting language called Tapscript, allowing more compact transactions and enhanced privacy.
Bitcoin Core developer Pieter Wuille tweeted: “At long last, BIP341/342 (‘taproot’) are active on Bitcoin mainnet. Thanks to everyone involved for getting us this far. The real work will be in building wallets/protocols that build on top of it to make use of its advantages.” His sentiment was echoed across the community.
First Taproot Script-Spends Observed On-Chain
Shortly after activation, blockchain developer Alekos Filini created the first Taproot script-spend transaction using a modified version of the Bitcoin Development Kit (BDK). It was a 1-of-2 multisig that used the new OP_CHECKSIGADD opcode. Filini noted: “It looks like this is the first ever OP_CHECKSIGADD used on Bitcoin! It’s the third Taproot script-spend in the block, but the two coming before didn’t use that opcode.”
Blockchain analytics tool OXT.me published a chart showing increasing Taproot usage post-activation. Bitcoin investor Anthony Pompliano congratulated developers, miners, and Bitcoiners. Another user, Hashoveride, remarked: “Taproot activated! Bitcoin upgraded! This is how consensus is formed and upgrades are done! Incredibly slow, non-controversial, and not forced.”
Multi-Signature Federations and DLCs
Bitcoiner Lyle Pratt highlighted three reasons for his excitement: “1) the upgrade process gave us a good recipe for future upgrades; 2) taproot will help proliferate new DLCs services and use cases, eventually bringing them to Lightning; 3) 1 mil+ participant multisig federations are now possible.” He explained that pre-Taproot, practical P2SH signer limits were about 15, but now much larger decentralized pools of signers or oracles are feasible.
Taproot represents a significant step forward for Bitcoin privacy, scalability, and smart contract capabilities. As wallets and protocols integrate these features, the network is poised to enter a new era of functionality and adoption.