Making the case for flag day activation of taproot

Summary:

There is currently gridlock in the Bitcoin community about how to activate Taproot, with no agreement on activation. While there are concerns around BIP8's implementation, it is premature to declare it dead. The author proposes starting with BIP8 LOT=false as a reasonably safe activation method and gathering data from a normal and successful Core update to show broad community support for the taproot upgrade. In the next release, approximately six months later, Core could then confidently deploy a BIP8 LOT=true client if necessary. The author suggests cherry-picking the commits of PR #19573 to split it up into non-MUST_SIGNAL and MUST_SIGNAL components, getting reviews first, and then deciding if BIP8 is dead or not. The author argues that forced signaling leads to brinksmanship and puts the network at risk, whereas flag day activation eliminates this risk. With flag day activation, we choose a block height, and after that block height, the new taproot rules become enforced.This method removes miner signaling and gives users control over the activation process. The author asserts that if Core developers did something evil, the community could resist it with a counter-flag-day-activation. The author believes that flag day activation is the way forward and should answer all objections and risks associated with other methods. In conclusion, the author advocates for bringing Taproot to Bitcoin using the proposed activation method.

Updated on: 2023-06-14T18:56:47.772507+00:00