The Taproot upgrade has achieved the first significant milestone on the road to activation as 90% of the Bitcoin (BTC) mining hash rate signaled for the protocol improvement within the current difficulty epoch. Data from Taproot.watch, a webpage created by Bitcoin developer Hampus Sjöberg, shows the lock-in stage is now completed. All recognized mining pools signaled for the upgrade with Slush Pool being the first to do so. It is perhaps fitting that Slush Pool also mined block 687285 that sealed the Taproot lock-in. TAPROOT LOCKED IN AT BLOCK 687285 BY SLUSHPOOL pic.twitter.com/FFDdibtmGt — pourteaux (@pourteaux) June 12, 2021 AntPool …

Slush Pool, the world’s oldest mining pool, put a Reuters headline about Bitcoin’s 2020 bull run in a block on Dec. 2. “Dollar plummets on U.S. stimulus hopes; Bitcoin hits all-time peak” is now part of Bitcoin block number 659678. Announcing the news on Twitter, Slush Pool said that the pool’s miners wanted to “immortalize” the bullish Bitcoin (BTC) headline from mainstream media, making it live forever on the Bitcoin blockchain. Our miners asked us to immortalize it. Block 659678: Reuters 01/Dec/2020 Dollar plummets on U.S. stimulus hopes; bitcoin hits all-time peakhttps://t.co/pmzK3HXhpw pic.twitter.com/LKpvlj9TC4 — Slush Pool | Braiins (OS+) (@slush_pool) …

Three of the biggest Western mining pools – representing a total of some 19% of hashing power on the Bitcoin network – stand divided on raising the block size limit. An inquiry by Cointelegraph has shown that both KnCMiner and Slush Pool are in favor of Gavin Andresen's proposal(s) to raise this limit. But the biggest of the three, BitFury, is more conservative. As such, a network-wide switch to Bitcoin XT to allow for bigger blocks seems even more unlikely, for now. Block Size Limit Lacking consensus among Core developers on how and when to raise the block size limit, …