Taproot Activation Update: Speedy Trial And The LOT=True Client - The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado

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.

Timestamps:

00:00 - 4:20 Intro and brief explanation of taproot activation
4:20 - 10:02 How Bitcoin core is going to upgrade to taproot/speedy trial
10:02 - 12:58 LOT=True Client
12:59 - 15:10 Differences between speedy trial and LOT=True
15:10 - 16:20 The naming of the clients
16:20 - 17:44 Potential incompatability with the two clients
17:44 - 23:01 If miners signal readiness after the speedy trial fails
23:01 - 25:06 More potential risks with a soft fork
25:13 - 27:03 Recap of the clients and previous topics
27:03 - 32:02 Potential incompatability (cont.)
32:05 - 34:35 If the majority of miners don't signal when the 18 months are up for LOT=True and the collective wisdom of the market
34:36 - 38:44 Concerns about development process of LOT=True client
38:48 - 43:23 Different activation methods
43:25 - 47:28 Block height vs. block time
42:28 - 51:03 The time warp attack/consensus amongst developers
51:03 - 51:53 Wrapping up