One of the most respected bitcoin developers, Gregory Maxwell, returns to his cypherpunk roots with a series of new projects.

After almost four years as technical director of the high-tech bitcoin start-up Blockstream, he left this position to focus exclusively on the code. Mainly because, as Maxwell explained in his letter of departure, he accomplished what he intended to do at startup, tackling the "significant underinvestment" in Bitcoin technology by the time he joined.

But with a community of developers "much bigger and more active" around Bitcoin today, Maxwell launches in 2018 in a project to improve smart contracts Bitcoin.

In this quest, Maxwell published an article on something called "Taproot" in mid-January, an idea that improves MAST's privacy, an idea in preparation that could bolster smart contract bitcoin capabilities. A few days later, Maxwell released another proposal called "Graftroot", further improving on MAST.

So why is this accent so attractive to Maxwell?

Maxwell tells CoinDesk:

"I expect every transaction to end up using these tools, at least in a limited way, which represents a gradual improvement, making more or less private and effective things more or less possible. as MAST. "

And so far, many developers have praised the new work of Maxwell.

"Taproot is terribly smart," Lightning Network creator Tadge Dryja said on Twitter, adding that while the idea seems simple in hindsight, no one thought about it before Maxwell.

Like a dandelion?

The interest of Maxwell seems to harmonize with greater attention to MAST now that SegWit (a code change depends on MAST) has been enabled on bitcoin.

To understand MAST, it is helpful to start by looking at one of the common use cases of bitcoin today – multi-signature M and N, which require that parts can only be spent only if a number of users (such as two -of-two, three-of-five) approve the transaction. One problem that can arise in these types of transactions is that a party loses its private key to sign with or simply decides not to comply, and at that moment the money is irretrievable.

MAST allows users to add additional conditions when a transaction can be spent more efficiently, which helps to solve the above problem.

For example, a transaction can be configured to no longer require multiple signatures if the multi-signature funds are not spent after, say, 10 years. The magic of MAST is that it can cram all this logic into an effective transaction.

In short, with Taproot and Graftroot, Maxwell has found a way to improve the privacy of these advanced transactions.

In Maxwell's eyes, the problem with MAST in the state is that each MAST transaction is different from a normal transaction, which can be detrimental to privacy, since people viewing the public bitcoin registry can theoretically to know which transactions use MAST. more about financial transactions, they have nothing to do.

Taproot improves privacy in MAST instances where multiple signatures are used, ensuring that these transactions, once set on the blockchain, look the same as other transactions.

Although Maxwell admits that the use case is narrow, he told CoinDesk:

"There has been a lot of hype around smart deals, but their actual and significant use has not yet caught up with this hype."

But making baby steps with real-life use cases could help broaden Bitcoin's value proposition as a programmable currency.

Both proposals, according to Maxwell, make smart contracts "easier to implement, more profitable and more private," he said. "Taproot and Graftroot are improving back-end technology for these advanced applications and, in doing so, will help make them more accessible to users."

And this ability to accomplish complex transactions without exposing this complexity is where Taproot got its name.

"Taproot is the most effective to use for intelligent contract use that looks like the root system of plants like a dandelion – a thick central path and small alternatives," Maxwell said.

Simple but useful

While Maxwell is sold on ideas, Taproot has attracted a minor debate.

One of the former Maxwell colleagues at Blockstream, Mark Friendenbach, argued that Taproot shows that MAST, if it is implemented in a certain way, could cause problems to l & # 39; future. His thesis is not that Taproot itself is a bad proposition (in fact, it supports exactly the opposite), but that many of the MAST implementations on the table today are not built with future iterations on your mind.

While Chaincode developer Matt Corallo said that Taproot's additional privacy is "absolutely huge for the ecosystem" and "should not be manipulated for vague potential benefits".

However, as long as Taproot and Graftroot get developer and community approval, Maxwell said it was possible to deploy the technologies alongside "future signature system upgrades," such as signatures. aggregates, another project to which Maxwell contributed.

But there could still be obstacles. According to Maxwell, smart bitcoin contracts are still far away.

"For true intelligent contracts like these to be widely used, a lot of extra work is needed, particularly in terms of providing good user interfaces to use them," he said.

However, if the disagreements are overcome, the implementation and deployment of MAST with Taproot and Graftroot will be relatively painless.

Maxwell concludes:

"Taproot is one of those ideas that are very simple to implement but very useful."

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which owns an interest in Blockstream.

Image via GregIsMissing.com

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