In practice, that means greater privacy, because your keys won't have as much exposure on the chain. "You can kind of hide who you are a little bit better, which is good," said Brandon Arvanaghi, previously a security engineer at crypto exchange Gemini.
It won't translate to greater anonymity for your individual bitcoin address on the public blockchain, but it will make simple transactions indistinguishable from those that are more complex and comprised of multiple signatures.
These souped-up signatures are also a game changer for smart contracts, which are self-executing agreements that live on the blockchain. Smart contracts can theoretically be used for practically any kind of transaction, from paying your rent each month, to registering your vehicle.
Taproot makes smart contracts cheaper and smaller, in terms of the space they take up on the blockchain. Killeen says that this enhanced functionality and efficiency presents "mind blowing potential."