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Taproot, Bitcoin’s long-anticipated upgrade, has activated

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Re: Taproot, Bitcoin’s long-anticipated upgrade, has activated

#3
post #2

When will BTC move to an energy efficient protocol?

Wouldn't the right question be "Will BTC move to an energy efficient protocol?". As far as I know, there is no plans from the Bitcoin developers to move away from Proof of Work, but I'd be happy to be corrected.

Re: Taproot, Bitcoin’s long-anticipated upgrade, has activated

#5
A snarky tweet from Bram Cohen of Chia (which has had taproot and graftroot enabled since launch in March):

> Congratulations to Bitcoin for joining the club of UTXO-based cryptocurrencies which have taproot enabled.

https://twitter.com/bramcohen/status/1459755439294275584

Re: Taproot, Bitcoin’s long-anticipated upgrade, has activated

#6
A crazy thing with Taproot is:

A company could create a virtual bank to handle all transfers with its suppliers by doing a single onchain transaction.

From the outside, it would look like a normal "Someone sent some coins from address A to address B" transaction.

But internally, a key needed to spend the funds is only valid if the company and all of its suppliers sign it.

This means every time there is a transaction between the company and one of its suppliers, the company would send out a signed message with the new spending conditions (the new balance of the company and every supplier) to the supplier network. Everyone signs it and that's it. It does not go on chain.

Only if a participant becomes uncooperative, the latest state will go on chain and everyone will get what they own.

So in the future, two transactions on the Bitcoin chain a few years apart could be "Someone sent something somewhere in December 2021 and then they send something somewhere in June 2025". Or it could be "BMW did ten thousand transactions with its suppliers". You don't know. Both look the same on chain. And all of the transactions were free, instant and possible 24/7.

Re: Taproot, Bitcoin’s long-anticipated upgrade, has activated

#8
post #2

When will BTC move to an energy efficient protocol?

Wouldn't the right question be "Will BTC move to an energy efficient protocol?". As far as I know, there is no plans from the Bitcoin developers to move away from Proof of Work, but I'd be happy to be corrected.

I believe the simple answer is "when BTC stakeholders stand to lose money by not moving away from PoW".

Re: Taproot, Bitcoin’s long-anticipated upgrade, has activated

#9
post #2

When will BTC move to an energy efficient protocol?

The mining reward is similar to a military budget. The higher the amount, the harder it is for someone to mess with peoples freedom to spend their money.

Currently it is about $10B per year.

The military budget of the USA alone is over $700B per year.

It is a tricky issue. How can we create security from malicious actors without spending much on defense?

How much does the world spend on locks? Probably a lot. It seems we have not found a cheaper way yet.

Maybe proof of stake will be as reliable and cheaper. We will see in a few years.

Re: Taproot, Bitcoin’s long-anticipated upgrade, has activated

#10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't the right question be "Will BTC move to an energy efficient protocol?". As far as I know, there is no plans from the Bitcoin developers to move away from Proof of Work, but I'd be happy to be corrected.

I believe the simple answer is "when BTC stakeholders stand to lose money by not moving away from PoW".

I think there's too much ideology, politics and tribalism involved to simplify it like this.
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