SLP257 Matt Corallo - Bitcoin Soft Fork Activation, Taproot, and Playing Chicken

Matt Corallo of Square Crypto, and long time bitcoin developer (now more focused on lightning) joins me on the show to talk about Taproot Activation, as well as review some of the history and nuance of prior soft forks in Bitcoin. We discuss:

• What is a fork
• What are the benefits of Taproot
• How the events of 2017 played out
• Dynamics of soft forks
• Taproot activation paths
• Flag day vs forced signalling UASF style
• LDK - Lightning Dev Kit

Links:

• Twitter: @thebluematt
• Lightning Dev Kit: LightningDevKit.org

Taproot links:

• Article: Understanding LOT=true or LOT=false by Aaron van Wirdum
• Article: Taproot Activation and the LOT Debate by Ben Kaufman
• Site: TaprootActivation.com (Mining Pool consensus effort by Alejandro from Poolin)
• Mailing list post: Summary of Taproot activation meeting on IRC 2/2/2021 by Michael Folkson

Relevant prior episodes:

• SLP137 AJ Towns – Schnorr Taproot Tapscript BIPs
• SLP222 Jonas Nick and Tim Ruffing What’s MuSig2? What Does it Mean for Bitcoin Multisig?

Sponsors:

• Swan Bitcoin
• Hodl Hodl Lend
• Compass Mining
• Unchained Capital (code LIVERA)
• CypherSafe (code LIVERA)
• CoinKite.com (code LIVERA)

Stephan Livera links:

• Show notes and website
• Follow me on twitter @stephanlivera
• Subscribe to the podcast
• Patreon @stephanlivera