Speedy Trial Has Been Merged Into Bitcoin Core, Potentially Setting Path To Taproot Activation

Speedy Trial has been merged into Bitcoin Core, offering a path toward the Taproot protocol upgrade is miners signal their overwhelming support.

According to a GitHub pull request, a BIP 9-based implementation of Speedy Trial has been merged with the code for Bitcoin Core, offering a potential path for activating the much-anticipated protocol upgrade Taproot.

As the Bitcoin Core dev community has debated the best way of implementing Taproot, which would add smart contract flexibility and privacy to Bitcoin, Speedy Trial has emerged as a potential solution.

“Speedy Trial would give miners three months to signal support for the Taproot upgrade with their hash power,” as Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost explained on a recent episode of Bitcoin Magazine’s “Van Wirdum Sjorsnado” podcast. “If a supermajority of miners signals support for the upgrade within these three months, Taproot will activate a couple of months later… If miners don’t signal support within three months, the upgrade will expire and a new upgrade path can be considered.”

There were two potential paths for getting Speedy Trial integrated into Bitcoin Core — through BIP 9 or through BIP 8, with some notable differences between the two methods. Bitcoin Developer Luke Dashjr, who has been active in community discussions regarding Taproot activation, noted his dissent around this BIP 9-based implementation of Speedy Trial on Twitter.

“Community came to consensus on BIP 8,” he wrote in a reply to a tweet sharing the GitHub pull request. “These devs are IGNORING that and pushing their own agenda instead. It is an attack on Bitcoin, not a good thing.”