Glossary

Tapscript

1 min read

Tapscript is the scripting language used to enable a variety of new transaction types as part of the Taproot upgrade. Tapscript is similar to Script, Bitcoin’s legacy scripting language, with a few alterations.

The main change, the addition of opcode OP_CHECKSIGADD, takes advantage of the fact that Schnorr signatures, another aspect of the Taproot upgrade, can be aggregated. Additionally, Tapscript is optimized to easily allow for unforeseen future upgrades by using the opcode OP_SUCCESS.

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Related Terms
Bitcoin script
Script is the language Bitcoin uses to decide who can spend a given UTXO. It is intentionally limited so anyone can run a node and validate the chain.
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Taproot
The Taproot upgrade is described in BIPs 340, 341, and 342, and introduces the Schnorr signature scheme, Taproot, and Tapscript.
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Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP)
A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) is a formal proposal to change Bitcoin. Upgrades, security improvements, industry standards, and more all begin as BIPs.
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Schnorr signature
Schnorr is a digital signature scheme similar to ECDSA, offering security, privacy, and efficiency advantages, used in Bitcoin's Taproot upgrade.
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Opcode
An operation code, or opcode, is a basic command of some computer languages. Bitcoin’s scripting language, called Script, has its own set of opcodes.
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