Bitcoin Technology Innovations in Progress: MAST, Taproot, and Schnorr Signatures Lead Development in 2020

Bitcoin has been around for 11 years since its inception, and the technology behind it continues to evolve. The year 2020 will witness further advancements in Bitcoin technology, including innovations such as MAST, Taproot, and Schnorr signatures. The continuous updates of these technologies will make Bitcoin more refined, rather than merely focusing on short-term gains.

2020 Bitcoin Technology Outlook

In recent years, the number of high-level, innovative developers engaged in Bitcoin core protocol development has shown a year-on-year decline, raising some concerns within the community.

However, if you pay close attention to the technological developments beyond the price of Bitcoin, you will find that many practical and interesting features are gradually maturing. Especially in the past few years, the Bitcoin blockchain has added many exciting new characteristics and plans to launch more innovations in 2020. For example, Miniscript, released in 2019, is a brand new script compiler for Bitcoin that significantly enhances the programmability of the Bitcoin blockchain without compromising its security.

Currently, the most关注的 Bitcoin技术提案 include:

1. Schnorr: An innovative signature scheme
2. MAST: A brand new Merkle tree data structure
3. Taproot: A method that allows participants to reach consensus on results and sign transactions.

The development of just these three technologies can significantly enhance the substitutability and privacy protection capabilities of Bitcoin. Below, we will discuss these three technologies in detail.

1. MAST

MAST (Merkel Abstract Syntax Tree) provides the capability to lock Bitcoin using different scripts linked to the same Merkel tree. In short, it leverages the properties of the Merkel tree, so that any fraudulent transaction at any node will result in a change to the entire tree structure, making it easily identifiable as invalid.

MAST is essentially a P2SH (Pay to Script Hash) script that combines Merkle tree technology. It allows the same set of Bitcoin to be linked to multiple scripts that contain different unlocking conditions. This greatly enhances the flexibility of Bitcoin smart contracts, improves scalability, and enhances user privacy.

2. Taproot

Taproot technology introduces smart contract-like functionality to the Bitcoin network, allowing users to add complex logic to simple payment or transaction scripts. It can be used in conjunction with P2SH to split scripts into independent sets of statements, showing only the necessary parts.

This technology also allows all transactions to appear completely consistent in the blockchain explorer, greatly enhancing privacy. Taproot significantly improves the efficiency of Schnorr signatures by consolidating multiple signing steps into a single signature. Developers state that Taproot can achieve efficient collaboration between MAST and Schnorr signatures.

3. Schnorr Signature

Schnorr signatures are a signature scheme invented by German cryptographer Claus-Peter Schnorr in the 1980s, particularly suitable for the Bitcoin system. It can combine multiple signatures into a single aggregated signature, greatly simplifying the signing process.

Unlike multi-signatures, Schnorr signatures allow each signer to have independent messages. During verification, Schnorr signatures do not leak any input information, making the transaction output appear just like a regular address to external observers, and only the private key holder can unlock it.

Compared to traditional ECDSA signatures, Schnorr signatures are easier to verify while ensuring higher correctness, flexibility, and stability.

Although the price of Bitcoin may experience short-term fluctuations, its underlying technology continues to advance. We should focus on the long-term development of Bitcoin, rather than just the immediate benefits. As a famous saying goes: "Anything is possible".

Investing requires caution; please approach market fluctuations with rationality.