Author: Russell O'Connor 2021-04-06 14:34:57
Published on: 2021-04-06T14:34:57+00:00
The Bitcoin community is discussing the pros and cons of using height or Median Time Past (MTP) activation to activate Taproot. Height-based activation offers a guaranteed number of signaling periods that could benefit the short activation period of Speedy Trial. However, MTP activation can also ensure a minimum of seven retargeting periods by carefully selecting signaling start and end dates to line up in the middle of expected retargeting periods that would otherwise be chosen with height-based activation. Although the differences between height and MTP activation are small and transient, some members are wondering why MTP activation should be used to fake height-based activation if it is what it takes to activate Taproot. Anthony Towns shared some numbers regarding signaling periods on mainnet and testnet. The important questions to consider are whether signaling is still possible by the time enough miners have upgraded and are ready to start signaling and whether nodes have upgraded to enforce the new rules when activation occurs. Both questions benefit from less real-time variance rather than less variance in the numbers of signaling periods. It was noted that the repeated trials part does not have any significant effect on mainnet. The corresponding numbers for testnet were also provided.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T19:55:02.314439+00:00