Poolin mining pool has opened a portal to prepare for a major bitcoin update Taproot

Chinese mining pool Poolin, which controls about 13% of the bitcoin hashrate, has started preparing for the Taproot update, the code of which will be included in the upcoming release of Bitcoin Core 0.21.0. Today it launched a specialized portal to inform other pools about Taproot and give them the opportunity to Express their preferences regarding the methods of activating the update.

Taproot includes three key changes to the bitcoin code base. It will allow you to add Schnorr signatures, extended support for smart contracts and the Tapscript programming language.

Poolin was founded by former employees of the mining company Bitmain and was the first pool to publicly Express support for the upcoming update, adding the appropriate label to all blocks released by it.

Bitcoin Core 0.21.0 will include the Taproot code, but will not contain the logic for activating it. It is expected that the launch of Taproot, which is a soft fork or backward compatible update, will not be hindered if the majority of miners support it. However, the community has not yet agreed on the best method to launch the update, as different options have their pros and cons.

Poolin CEO Kevin pan said in a conversation with Bitcoin Magazine that they prefer activation via BIP 9, when 95% of all hash capacities are supported, but they do not exclude the option with BIP 8, which is characterized by the possibility of forced activation after a certain period.

"Unlike SegWit, Taproot does not cause such fierce disputes, and BIP 9 was successfully used even before SegWit – "he said –" So we prefer the old-school method, BIP 9. But the community can also run a user-activated soft fork, BIP 8."

Pan believes that the requirement to support updating 95% of the hashrate with BIP 9 will not be a problem, and if BIP 8 is selected, one year will be sufficient for preparation.