BTC Taproot upgrade simply explained

Bitcoin underwent the Taproot upgrade over the weekend, with enthusiasts terming it a game-changer. The soft fork upgrade is generally designed to improve Bitcoin's security, privacy, and efficiency.

Overall, the update follows the "last civil war" upgrade that was carried out in 2017. Taproot's outstanding appeal is that it involves increased improvements to the Bitcoin code. Taproot is implemented alongside the Schnorr signatures upgrades. Consequently, it enables a much-anticipated feature called signature aggregation.

Some of the benefits expected to come with the upgrade include consolidating all types of Bitcoin transaction outputs into a singular Taproot output. This capability seeks to improve privacy by making different types of transactions indistinguishable. 

The Schnorr signatures make multi-signature transactions unreadable. This is a shift from Bitcoin's current "Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm," which creates a signature from the private key controlling a Bitcoin wallet. This ensures that the genuine owner only utilizes Bitcoin.