Bitcoin’s biggest upgrade in four years just happened

Bitcoin’s long-awaited Taproot upgrade, which is said to be the cryptocurrency’s biggest upgrade in four years, went live when the blockchain reached block 709,623 at 5:15 UTC on Sunday. The upgrade brings greater transaction privacy and efficiency.

Taproot introduces Schnorr signatures that can make more complex transactions on Bitcoin, such as those from multi-signature wallets, look like simple transactions. In practice, this will mean greater privacy for users, as they won’t have as much exposure on the blockchain.