Distribution of Bitcoin hashrate by support for Taproot activation
Majority of Bitcoin Hashrate Signals Support for Taproot Scaling, Privacy Upgrade
Bitcoin mining pools representing over 54% of the network’s current hashrate have signaled support for the scaling and privacy protocol upgrade Taproot, merged into Bitcoin Core last month.
Bitmain’s Antpool backed the protocol upgrade Thursday morning in a message sent to Poolin, the pool told CoinDesk, joining five other pools in Poolin’s Taproot Activation initiative and pushing the percentage of hashrate in support of the upgrade over 50%. Antpool plans to publicly express its support in a forthcoming block’s coinbase.
Poolin’s vice president, Alejandro De La Torre, told CoinDesk he is “beyond happy” that most major mining pools have responded affirmatively to their “consensus-built effort” to support Taproot.
Notably, Binance Pool is the only top-five pool to not yet support Taproot.
Taproot aims to improve transaction privacy and enhance Bitcoin’s smart contract functionality. As an added bonus, it’s also designed to keep Bitcoin’s blocks small, with block space as accessible as possible.
“The only uncertainty with Taproot is when and how it will be activated,” said Daniel Frumkin, engineer and technical writer at Slush Pool, in a direct message with CoinDesk.
“In the end it should be a straightforward process with minimal drama,” he added, noting that Taproot is “not controversial.” Frumkin contrasted this proposed upgrade with the heated industry-wide disagreements caused by the 2017 SegWit2X proposal, which many miners also supported.
Seeing any miners opposing the Taproot upgrade would be a shock to Frumkin. “I’d expect the rest of the major pools to signal support in the following weeks,” he said.
Distribution of Bitcoin hashrate by support for Taproot activationSource: Poolin, BTC.com, CoinDesk Research
Elon Musk and other VIPs have endorsed it. Here's why the Federal Reserve should seriously consider BTC for its balance sheet. The Federal Reserve building in Washington, D.C.(Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg)Feb 17, 2021 at 2:30 p.m. UTCThe United States will adopt bitcoin as a reserve asset.Why? Because it is unequivocally in U.S. strategic interests to do so.Alex…
news United Arab Emirate’s national airline has teamed up with a Switzerland-based blockchain startup to provide its internal information systems. Winding Tree, a decentralized business-to-business marketplace built on ethereum, will provide logistical support for Etihad Airways’ distribution system, according to a Reuters report on Thursday. The move will allow the airline to bypass third-party operators…
The bitcoin spot ETFs accumulated over $15 million on Monday, snapping a five-day outflow streak.Inflows could gather pace as the quarter draws to a close, one analyst said.The Nasdaq-listed spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) registered inflows totaling $15.4 million on Monday, ending a five-day run of outflows, according to provisional data published by investment
Dec 30, 2019 at 10:39 UTCUpdated Dec 30, 2019 at 10:40 UTCThis post is part of CoinDesk's 2019 Year in Review, a collection of 100 op-eds, interviews and takes on the state of blockchain and the world. Jason Goldberg is founder of OST, which powers the ethereum application layer, and Pepo, an app where people…
After surging for two days on spot bitcoin ETF euphoria, the price of the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization stalled.BTC was recently trading at about $30,180, roughly where it stood 24 hours ago when investor optimism spiked after three financial services powerhouses, including BlackRock – the world's largest asset manager – applied for BTC spot…
Russia has passed one law legalizing cryptocurrency mining from November 1, 2024. A second experimental law allowing the central bank to authorize selected companies to conduct cross-border settlements and exchange trading in digital currency was also passed. Russia's lower house of the Federal Assembly, known as the State Duma, has passed two crypto-related laws on
OPINION Edan Yago is the founder of CementDAO, an effort to bring together stablecoins into a unified ecosystem. He previously was the CEO and co-founder of software firm Epiphyte and helped set up the industry associations DATA and the Stablecoin Foundation. The views expressed here are his own. —————————- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has…
Delivery of the new machines is set to start in May. (Shutterstock)Jan 19, 2021 at 9:36 p.m. UTCHive Blockchain Buys 6,400 Mining Machines From Canaan to Reach 1,200 PH/sPublicly traded cryptocurrency mining company Hive Blockchain (HIVE) announced its purchase of 6,400 mining machines from Canaan (CAN), a move that will push the company’s total hash…
Laser Digital, the digital asset asset subsidiary of financial services giant Nomura, has received an operating license from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA), the final stage of the licensing process, the company said in a statement Tuesday.Laser Digital Middle East, which is based in the emirate, can now offer virtual asset (VA) broker-dealer services…