Mining pools that signposted in favor of Taproot comprise 50% of the Bitcoin hashrate. The Taproot Speedy Trial consists of 6 mining difficulty periods in total.

Taproot won’t activate its functions during the current difficult period. Still, it will have another five more periods to achieve its goal with the Speedy Trial or rapid test that began on Saturday, May 1.

Until the last difficulty adjustment that will face its launch before August 11, 2021, miners will have the opportunity to include their signposting in favor of Taproot in at least 1,815 blocks, 90% of the 2,016 blocks that each difficulty period lasts.

In the current period, which appears to be the hardest, more than 400 blocks have gone through mining procedures without signposting in favor of Taproot, representing 20% of the total. According to Taproot, only 104 blocks have signposted in favor of Taproot, from some mining pools such as F2 Pool, Antpool, 1THash, Slush Pool, and Foundry USA. Watch.

Together, these mining pools take part in more than 40% of Bitcoin’s mining power or hashrate, although this metric does not formally count to signal the activation of Taproot. However, it is still very representative information about the signal’s condition.

According to the TaprootActivation portal, which has carried out surveys among mining groups, the majority have already expressed their approval of Taproot. However, there are still several to approve the signal on the network. The website counts the hashrate of groups that have signed in favor of Taproot at 47% of the Bitcoin network.

With 1,512 blocks to go through mining procedures, it would not be enough to mine all of them to signpost in favor of Taproot. The next try will happen in the next difficulty adjustment period, which could start on May 20, according to Bitcoinity. Mid-August would be the last chance to block the activation of Taproot and Schnorr in Bitcoin through the Speedy Trial (ST).

There Are not Enough Mined Blocks in Favor of Taproot During Such a Harsh Period

According to developers, it is understandable that there are not enough mined blocks favoring Taproot during this challenging period. This situation is because the Bitcoin Core 0.21.1 software saw its release on Friday, April 30, right before the current difficulty setting. The miners have probably had very little time to consolidate an update and reconnect their nodes to the network with the new client.

Subsequently, if miners signpost 90% in favor of Taproot in some of the following difficulty periods of the Speedy Trial, the scalability solution would face a lock-in and receive its activation in mid-November.

The Speedy Trial and Results in Favor of Taproot

If the Speedy Trial does not show any relevant result, users will progressively update to the available version of the Bitcoin Core client that includes Taproot. Developers should promptly indicate their proposal in this scenario if it happens.

Likewise, there are chances for other users to activate some versions of this software, as is the client’s case developed by Bitcoin Mechanic, which would start Taproot through the Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) 8 with the LOT = valid parameter.

By: Jenson Nuñez

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