gui VS Taproot-Activation

libbitcoin isn't a company. It's an alternative C++ implementation (https://github.com/libbitcoin) to the Bitcoin Core (https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin) implementation. Bitcoin Core is the one originally from Satoshi. Libbitcoin came in like 2011 or so iirc and was led by Amir Taaki. Libbitcoin is a lot less popular than Bitcoin Core, as you can see on the github stats.

The code is open-source: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/

That would make Eve online, Second Life, and other games illegal since people trade their digital assets all the time

>Comparing Bitcoin to free software seems similarly disingenuous.

Bitcoin is free software. https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin

Yes a government can. Bitcoin specifically is open source: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin. The ledger is public so as you pointed out there wouldn't be more details.

Bitcoin Core integration/staging tree - 66.3k stars

Different implementations(core, knots,btcd,bcoin,libbitcoin, ....) have different ways of coming to consensus. The most popular implementation called core https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin follows these guidelines https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md

You can read every line of code right here on GitHub.

Also, read the source code It's on-line, for free https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin

Why is the source code a single file? No real code project that I've ever seen is built on 1 file. Take a look at BTC for example, that's what a real code project looks like.

well trezor it self is a company. The taproot upgrade for bitcoin was voted on using the taproot-activation consensus. https://taprootactivation.com/

Yes, it will support smart contracts when the taproot block is mined https://taprootactivation.com/ Should be around mid-November.

I agree in general, however Taproot and the Schnoor signatures implementation would theoretically allow more lightweight and sophisticated smart contract code on the blockchain while while increasing the TPS rate and lowering the cost. Taproot consensus (https://taprootactivation.com/) seems to be leaning toward accepting the soft fork so more varied smart contract code on Bitcoin's blockchain may be available sooner than later.

There are several small mining pools that have not signaled for Taproot in any of their blocks. Collectively, these pools produce approximately 4.77% of all blocks. Of these pools, only SpiderPool has explicitly expressed their support for Taproot via off-chain channels (see https://taprootactivation.com/).

Binance Pool (4.8% hashpower). They gave their support for Taproot back in 2020. Now they're playing games. Luckily the game ended in massive "yeses" that they should support taproot (the question is: who are the 20% of people who voted no??).

https://taprootactivation.com/

Arguably, the Bitcoin scalability efforts have been progressing too slowly. Second generation blockchain designs such as Ethereum and Avalanche are going to dethrone Bitcoin at some point.