Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), which was lower for four straight sessions after it hit a fresh all-time high of $67,673.74 on Monday, is seeing a modest recovery on Saturday. Most other altcoins have also reversed course. The recovery assumes importance as it comes ahead of a key catalyst for Bitcoin.
The Bitcoin Price Action: The recent run-up in Bitcoin began in late September and a steep rally ensued. After peaking at an intraday high of $66,930.39 on Oct. 20, the crypto paused for a breather and was largely seeing a consolidation move until early November. Bitcoin took another leg up in its push toward another all-time high earlier this week.
From Monday’s peak, Bitcoin slipped to a trough of 62,333.91 on Friday, a peak-trough decline of about 8%. The crypto has risen from the trough since then.
Countdown Begins For Taproot Upgrade: Bitcoin is all set to undergo taproot upgrade, a major network upgrade, on Nov. 14. According to Taproot.watch, about 11 hours or 64 blocks are left for the upgrade to take effect. The Taproot.watch website was launched by Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg to track updates on the upgrade.
Taproot is a soft fork, a software upgrade that is backwards compatible with older nodes, to the Bitcoin network aimed at improving scripting capabilities and privacy. It enables MAST, which can make smart contracts more efficient and private by only revealing the relevant parts of the contract when spending.
It can also improve privacy on the Lightning Network by making channels look like regular bitcoin transactions, if the Lightning implementations choose to adopt Taproot.
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Taproot upgrade is the first major upgrade since the Segregated Witness in 2017 that eventually led to the development and launch of the Lightning Network in 2018.
As opposed to the SegWit upgrade, which focused on resolving transaction malleability and improving the scalability of the Bitcoin network, the Taproot upgrade has a 3-pronged motive – transaction efficiency, privacy and supporting smart contract initiatives.
Work on the upgrade began after 90% consensus was achieved among Bitcoin mining nodes on June 12.
The impact of this upgrade may already be priced into Bitcoin’s current value, Cointelegraph reported, citing Anto Bukov, the co-founder of decentralized cryptocurrency exchange, 1inch Network.
Altcoins Tow In: Most Altcoins are also on the rise. Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) is modestly higher, BinanceCoin (CRYPTO: BNB), the third most valued crypto, is higher by about 5% at $652.59.
Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE), one of the widely traded meme currencies, is rising about 1.14% to $0.259876, while its sibling Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) was seen down 0.92% at $0.000052.
At last check, Bitcoin was advancing 0.33% to $64,034.47.
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