The Bitcoin (BTC) network has reportedly achieved success status for the activation of the Taproot soft fork, after a 90% lock-in consensus from miners and mining pools between blocks 709,488 and 709,632.

Specifically, the newly achieved milestone reportedly functions as a signal for the first significant upgrade for Bitcoin since August 4 years ago, when the introduction of Bitcoin’s leading layer-two solution, the Lightning Network and Segregated Witness (SegWit) are completed. 

The Taproot upgrade has a primary target of bringing enhancement to the scripting capabilities and privacy of the Bitcoin network. In order to achieve this, the soft fork rolled out the concept of Merkelized Abstract Syntax Tree (MAST).

“[MAST] can help make smart contracts more efficient and private by only revealing the relevant parts of the contract when spending.” As revealed via a Taproot-centric web page operated by prominent Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg. 

Sjöberg reportedly mentioned that Taproot activation is an indication of Bitcoin possessing the ability to do network upgrades again, which is of crucial nature to the longevity of the Bitcoin network. 

“I think that’s the greatest win”. 

Sjöberg – who reportedly works as a developer of a Bitcoin Lightning wallet Blixt Wallet – shared his belief that the Taproot upgrade makes it possible for deep-diving into off-chain capabilities, as to partially alleviate the burden on the Bitcoin nodes of the network.

Additionally, Sjöberg claimed that MAST has extra ability to bring enhancements to the privacy of the older Lightning Network “if the Lightning implementations choose to adopt Taproot.” 

“One of the things that were discussed in the meeting was whether it’s best to upgrade Lightning in small iterations or do it as one big package.”