Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin Enables Taproot, Still Lies About Privacy

[grarpamp]

The amount of Media, Maxis, and Fanboys falsely
claiming over the last years that taproot does
anything for realworld privacy of its users, is astounding.
Not only does bitcoin not have any real onchain privacy,
they never even bothered to do the simple task
of deploying TLS everywhere.
Bitcoin is a dangerous and totally unnecessary 100%
downgrade to zero from the much better privacy of cash,
gold, chickens, and all the other stronger privacy cryptos.



Bitcoin's 'Taproot' Upgrade Is Imminent - Here's What It Means

https://bitcoinmagazine.com/technical/understanding-taproot-in-a-simple-way

The highly-anticipated upgrade is set to roll out over the weekend,
changing Bitcoin for the better.

Understanding exactly what about the Bitcoin network implementing
Taproot changes is necessary for understanding why the changes were
needed. Taproot is the combination of many Bitcoin Improvement
Proposals (BIPs) resulting in a soft fork of Bitcoin’s blockchain. A
soft fork is a proposed upgrade that over time is adopted as the only
blockchain, meaning the old one will cease to operate once the new one
(in this case, Taproot) is fully adopted.
WHAT DOES TAPROOT DO?

The improvements can be broken down into three categories, each
affecting the other, and each necessary to the final construct.
Taproot successfully increases security, and also allows flexibility
and scalability with the introduction of a new language that is ever
expanding. The three categories of changes to summarize are as
follows:
1. Schnorr Signatures (BIP 340)

This new form of signature allows for superior security, lower fees,
and flexible multi-signature transactions. How?

    SigHash (Signature Hash) is applied to the transactions, meaning
that once a SigHash is applied, the information becomes immutable
(unchangeable). If the information is changed, the transaction loses
validity. Nothing can be changed without destroying the SigHash.
Previously, a small amount of information could be changed through
“malleability” that would not result in the transaction losing its
validity. Speaking of signatures …

    Key and Signature Aggregation allows for the aggregation of public
keys and signatures. This means if you have a transaction with 10
people, previously you would need 10 public keys, 10 signatures, and a
verifier would have to verify each key and signature. With key and
signature aggregation, we can make all 10 public keys into one key,
and all 10 signatures, into one signature. The verifier now only has
to do this once, instead of 10 times. This is where a lot of
computational processing occurs.

    Superior Security is achieved in the aggregation process because
on-chain heuristics (data tracked) will not be able to discern the
difference between a multisignature and single-signature transaction,
allowing for more privacy.

    Batch Verification is added on from the aggregation mentioned
above, as now we can “batch” together multiple transactions, to verify
them together, as opposed to one at a time. Basically, this is just
“bulk verification,” and also leads to fewer resources being spent.

2. Taproot (BIP 341)

The entire update is named after this portion because this is how the
new system integrates with the old one.

    Bitcoin Script Update allows the scripting language to use Schnorr
signatures and integrates the Merkelized Alternative Script Trees
(MAST).

    Pay-To-Taproot (P2TR) gives the freedom of choice. You can use
either Schnorr signatures or the Merkle root provided in MAST. Satisfy
the requirements of your choosing, which allows for cleaner
transaction processing when the Merkle tree may not be needed.

(MAST) summarizes the possible scripts that are needed to unlock a
bitcoin, instead of requiring all the possible scripts for the
transaction. The single-script hash provided by MAST actually
represents several scripts. To spend a bitcoin, you need only provide
your script, and provide proof that your script is held in the Merkle
root. Previously, it would have taken far more scripts and extended
verification.
3. Tapscript

Tapscript is a collection of “opcodes,” which are essentially just
lines of codes that execute commands on the Bitcoin protocol that have
been updated to make way for the new changes installed by Taproot. It
can be referred to as a language, but it is more like an update to
Bitcoin Script.

    Bitcoin Script has a 10,000-byte script size limit which will be
removed, allowing for vastly larger scripts, or Taproot contracts. It
also removes the cap for “opcodes,” which allows for more flexibility
for increased features and coding in the future.

    This removal of script size and unfettered growth available in
scripting allows a clear path to smart contracts.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Security is the lifeblood of every Bitcoiner.

Unwilling to shake their core beliefs of hard, sound money, the
Bitcoin community paced themselves to make sure the Layer 1 (Bitcoin
protocol) was immutable, efficient, and proven to be 100% secure
before “upgrading.” Other platforms rushed to Layer 2 (open
applications built on the original protocol) while Bitcoin held off on
further developments until base-layer security was an undeniable
certainty. Because of this, some argue that Bitcoin had lost the race
to developing smart contract capability, and products like Ethereum
emerged as first to market, changing the way we look at decentralized
applications.

Taproot has evened the playing field. Bitcoin now has a clear path to
deployment of smart contracts, decentralized autonomous organizations,
and more. Products like the Lightning Network have already shown that
fast and reliable transactions can still be backed with an immutable
ledger, even without the access that Taproot will give developers of
the future.

Bitcoin is stepping into a broader world with applications that we
cannot imagine in a way that it simply could not before. This newfound
developer freedom and systemic efficiency for the miners will drive
more great minds to the protocol, fostering new ideas which will help
the network continue to flourish.

'Shinobi', writing at BitcoinMagazine, is even more enthusiastic,
noting that this is an amazing and comprehensive upgrade to Bitcoin
that has arguably been in the works since almost the birth of Bitcoin
itself, not just the last few years in which the actual implementation
details have been worked out and implemented.

It really is a win in so many ways for the scalability and utility of
the Bitcoin protocol that it is hard to convey because of how subtle
and “un-sexy” some of them are. But that doesn’t detract from the win.
So, everyone get buckled in and ready to play with the new toys that
we will have to use soon, because Taproot is coming!