- The Bitcoin Taproot upgrade was locked on Saturday after a 90 percent mandate was reached.
- This is the greatest upgrade in 4 years and is set to be enacted in November.
The Bitcoin Taproot upgrade has been forthcoming for weeks now. Until now, it has failed to garner enough mining support to be activated. It promises to be the most significant upgrade in the Bitcoin network for nearly four years following the Segregated Witness (Segwit) upgrade in 2017. This period reached 1815 Taproot signalling blocks which were required to lock in the upgrade. The upgrade is now due to take over around November. It introduces new protocols to bring privacy, enable scaling, multi-signature wallets and security.
Bitcoin is at times criticized for its limited utility. With Taproot Bitcoin expands its utility allowing new developers to build on the most stable and secure blockchain network. Additionally, unlike previous upgrades that have seen the community “fight,” the latest upgrade has nearly universal support.
This upgrade will be a major boost for Bitcoin as it looks to keep up with more agile and active blockchains, that is, in terms of network developments. More specifically, the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ethereum. The largest altcoin in the market is set for its own upgrade in what is viewed as its largest upgrade since its launch. Dubbed Ethereum 2.0, the upgrade will see the network scale and reduce gas fees. The two have been its greatest shortcomings after its success turned into its own undoing.
Bitcoin vs Ethereum
With the launch and Ethereum outperforming Bitcoin since the turn of the year, Ethereum supporters believe that Etheruem will eventually flip Bitcoin. One of the most popular narratives, when pitted against each other, is that Ethereum has a large ecosystem. Over the years, thousands of protocols and DApps have been built on the Ethereum blockchain. In essence, this has made it almost too big to fail. However, it has by far remained behind Bitcoin as a store of value. But now the battle is taking a new twist, recent months have seen Ethereum emerge as a great store of value prefered by institutional investors and Bitcoin upgrade its network to keep up in terms of utility.
Read also: Ethereum will beat Bitcoin as a store of value- Goldman Sachs leaked report
Experts familiar with the upgrade have noted that the upgrade will take months before being enacted because upgrades open up the possibility of a bug that could destroy the entire network. As such, the upgrade has to undergo vigorous tests to ensure it is stable and secure.
Bitcoin (BTC) under heavy pressure
Despite the recent development, Bitcoin prices have remained stagnant. Throughout the weekend, prices have traded in a tight range, sticking above the $35,000 support but unable to break above the $38,000 resistance. Recent positive developments throughout the past week had little effect on prices signalling heavy pressure on the digital asset.
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