BitMEX adds support for Bitcoin Taproot

• BitMEX has added support for Taproot, Bitcoin’s latest update.
• As Taproot adoption increases, users will benefit from increased privacy, lower transaction fees, and more flexible smart contracts.
• Taproot was activated on the Bitcoin protocol on November 14, 2021 at block 709,632.

Cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX has added support for Taproot addresses, the company said in a statement Friday.

“As of today, BitMEX supports withdrawals to Bitcoin Bech32m addresses,” according to the statement. “The first BitMEX client withdrawal to such an address took place earlier today.”

Taproot was activated as a software upgrade to the Bitcoin network in November to improve transaction privacy and efficiency while increasing the flexibility of Bitcoin’s scripting capabilities. The upgrade introduced a new exit type, Pay to Taproot (P2TR), using the new Bech32m address format and allowing bitcoin spending to look the same whether it’s a transaction simple, a more complex multisig or a Lightning Network. transaction.

According to Bitcoin Optech newsletter issue 154, Bech32m is slightly different from its predecessor, Bech32, as it changes the constant “0x01” in the checksum function to “0x2bc830a3”.

“BitMEX prides itself on using the latest Bitcoin technology, to provide better features and lower fees for our users,” the statement said.

The more complex the spending conditions, the more the user can save on transaction fees by using Taproot, as the new address type makes almost all transactions look like a simple signature. The upgrade also makes it possible to deploy larger and more complex Bitcoin operations that were previously unfeasible or nearly impossible.

BitMEX has taken a step in the right direction by enabling the latest Bitcoin functionality to its users, as most of the possibilities unlocked by Taproot can only be refreshed once a considerable portion of the network starts using the upgrade.

The popular mobile financial platform and broker Cash App added support for Taproot in December.