What’s Next for the Bitcoin Protocol Now That Taproot Has Been Activated?

The Bitcoin developer community continues to work actively to advance the Bitcoin revolution.

After four years without any major upgrades, the Bitcoin protocol has just experienced a major one with the activation of Taproot during November 2021. Taproot will be an essential game-changer for the future of Bitcoin, setting the foundation for future innovations that will be developed on top of the Bitcoin system in the years to come.

Before Taproot, the last major upgrade, also called a “soft fork”, was Segregated Witness. So soft forks are not that common for the Bitcoin protocol, and that makes total sense. Bitcoin needs to evolve safely to ensure that no bugs are introduced into its system in a hurry.

Billions of dollars are at stake, and more importantly, the fate of the Bitcoin revolution, where a major bug would be a major blow to the confidence of millions of users who hope for a better future with Bitcoin.

While Taproot has been slow to become a reality for the Bitcoin protocol, that doesn't mean that the developers in the Bitcoin community haven't done anything else in the meantime. They are constantly working on a whole bunch of topics that could lead to potential new soft forks in the months and years to come. These topics are grouped under the umbrella of BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal).

Here are the main ones that could be integrated into the Bitcoin protocol shortly.