Author: ZmnSCPxj 2021-02-19 11:30:08
Published on: 2021-02-19T11:30:08+00:00
The Bitcoin community is currently discussing the activation of Taproot, a new soft-fork aimed at improving privacy and efficiency on the network. However, concerns have been raised regarding the method of activation itself, which involves consensus code executed as part of a fork. There are debates around whether to activate Taproot via flag-day-based activation or by allowing users to run both versions and let the network decide. The risk of chain splits during activation has also been a concern, with some proposing ways to minimize it.One suggestion to minimize the risk of chain splits is to release a version of Bitcoin Core that requires users to choose LOT=true or LOT=false before starting without forcing either option on users. However, some worry that giving miners too much control over network consensus could set a precedent for future updates.Despite these concerns, many in the Bitcoin community believe that Taproot would be a significant improvement for the network and are looking forward to its implementation. The activation process is still being debated and discussed, with various proposals and viewpoints being considered.A discussion is ongoing within the Bitcoin community regarding whether to set the lock-in on timeout (LOT) parameter to true or false for the upcoming Taproot upgrade. Some participants expressed concern that setting LOT to true could lead to a wasted year of waiting and a minority of people getting stuck at the moment of MUST_SIGNAL, unable to mine new blocks. Others argued that it is unlikely that miners would fail to activate Taproot before LOT becomes relevant.The emotional connotations of the term "user-activated soft fork" (UASF) were also discussed, with some participants arguing that users are not forced to run any particular software version, but defaults set in software versions can be influential. Open discussions are deemed healthy, and it's important to prepare for bad or worst-case scenarios in advance without being antagonistic or destructive.On February 22, Michael Folkson posted a message on the Bitcoin-dev mailing list detailing the outcomes of the Taproot activation meeting that took place the previous week. Attendees discussed support for both LOT=true and LOT=false arguments, but only evaluated which had more support and strong opposition towards the end of the meeting. The conversation log is available, as well as a summary by Luke Dashjr on Mastodon.The proposed activation height range was 693504-745920, with a MASF threshold of 1815/2016 blocks (90%). However, attendees were not representative of the entire community, so details remained just a proposal. Folkson noted that there was no overwhelming consensus for either LOT=true or LOT=false, but there was clearly more strong opposition from Bitcoin Core contributors, Lightning developers, and other community members against LOT=true than there was for LOT=false. Based on these factors, Folkson's opinion is that the only option to finalize Taproot activation parameters and propose them to the community is to propose LOT=false. He also announced that a code review of the Bitcoin Core PR #19573 is planned for February 23rd at 19:00 UTC on the IRC channel ##taproot-activation. Finally, he thanked meeting participants and those who joined the discussion on the channel prior and post the meeting for engaging productively and in good faith.
Updated on: 2023-06-14T17:54:40.593585+00:00