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In this episode of “The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado,” hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discussed the final implementation details of Speedy Trial, the Taproot activation mechanism included in Bitcoin Core 0.21.1. Van Wirdum and Provoost also compared Speedy Trial to the alternative BIP 8 LOT=true activation client.
After more than a year of deliberation, the Bitcoin Core project has merged Speedy Trial as the (first) activation mechanism for the Taproot protocol upgrade. Although van Wirdum and Provoost had already covered Taproot, the different possible activation mechanisms and Speedy Trial specifically in previous episodes, in this episode they laid out the final implementation details of Speedy Trial.
In addition to that, they discussed an alternative activation path, which has been proposed by the pseudonymous Bitcoin Mechanic and Shinobi in their BIP 8 LOT=true activation client, officially named “Bitcoin Core 0.21.0-Based Taproot Client 0.1.” This client will initially be compatible with Bitcoin Core 0.21.1, including throughout the Speedy Trial phase.
Eventually however, there may be some scenarios where Bitcoin Core 0.21.1 and the LOT=true client could become incompatible. Van Wirdum and Provoost discussed some scenarios in which this could happen, and shared some additional thoughts about the two activation paths and clients.