Bitcoin's Privacy and Scaling Tech Upgrade 'Taproot' Just Took a Big Step Forward

NO LEADERS: The proposed upgrade to bitcoin's code "Is obviously conditional on getting community support," says developer Peter Wuille.

A privacy and scalability upgrade that could turn out to be one of bitcoin's largest to date has passed a couple of milestones that were little noticed outside technical circles.

On Tuesday, Pieter Wuille, a Bitcoin Core contributor and the brains behind the update known as Taproot submitted a work-in-progress code change to GitHub in what's known as a "Pull request," showing that the code is ready for more developer eyes.

Submitting a pull request to the code for Bitcoin Core does not mean the change is official.

Though Wuille submitted the pull request just a couple of days ago, several bitcoin developers including John Newberry, Ben Woosley, and Adam Ficsor have already left review comments, in another sign of how highly anticipated the change is.

In another key, if more symbolic milestone, the three Bitcoin Improvement Proposals, which are like blueprints of the changes, have also been assigned numbers on GitHub.

It's better than what bitcoin has right now in that it paves the way for scalability improvements and allows developers to build new technologies on top of bitcoin.

Using Schnorr, Taproot adds smart contract capabilities to bitcoin that would strengthen privacy.

As a decentralized cryptocurrency, bitcoin doesn't have a single leader who can push through changes.

If no one in the community comes up with any valid objections to Taproot it could become the biggest change the digital currency has seen since 2017, when scaling upgrade SegWit was locked in after a long and often savage debate.