Key facts:
The bug has so far been partially fixed, in the absence of a new software update.
Taproot’s official arrival on the Bitcoin mainnet is expected in mid-November.
Neutrino, the thin client for Bitcoin nodes, is experiencing problems with the use of Taproot within its software. This, a few days after this update is finally activated, scheduled for mid-November, at the height of block 709,632.
The situation report was shared by Olaoluwa Osuntokun, co-founder of Lightning Labs, on the Bitcoin-dev developers mailing list. The email details that the error could be detected when testing with Neutrino on the Bitcoin testnet.
The main error found, as detailed by Osuntokun, is that Neutrino incorrectly filters transactions that make use of Taproot marking them as invalid, specifically about the protocol known as SegWit v1. In the case of v0, or native SegWit, in the words of the developer “it works perfectly”.
According to some comments in the community, the flaw would “break” at the time of running Taproot. However, Osuntokun clarifies that “Neutrino is fine, the protocol is fine.”
Olaoluwa Osuntokun is currently the CTO of Lightning Labs. Source: Youtube.
The failure can be considered a minor problem. The solution proposed, so far, is to update the Neutrino client with a small patch that will allow the execution of this protocol once Taproot is active on the network. Osuntokun mentions that it is already working on a new update, corresponding to version 0.14. However, it may not be ready before activation.
Race against the clock before the arrival of Taproot
Less than two weeks before Taproot’s arrival, possibly scheduled for November 16, problems regarding adoption are still emerging. Neutrino is an example of this. Discover a fault that does not allow the use of Taproot, within days of its arrival, seems to show that the community, in general, is not fully prepared.
Another example is found in a news item recently reported by ., in which it is confirmed that less than 50% of bitcoin nodes have updated for the use of Taproot. This, despite the fact that the Bitcoin Core client with general support for this update has been available in the official repository since mid-September.
Taproot, together with the new crypto firms Schnorr, will offer Bitcoin greater privacy in its transactions. In networks such as the Lightning Network, the protocol in which Neutrino works, a reduction in commissions is expected, even below 1 sat. However, for this scenario to be possible, adoption challenges have yet to be overcome, such as nodes.
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