From what I perceive, a public key could be compressed from 64 bytes into 32 bytes, however a further byte is required for the signal, so it normally winds up being 33 bytes whole. However P2TR addresses solely do a PUSHBYTES_32. Am I incorrect in my understanding how compressed public keys work?

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SEC encoded public keys are both:

  • Uncompressed 65-byte encoding: 0x04 + [32-byte X coordinate] + [32-byte Y coordinate]
  • Compressed 33-byte encoding:
    • 0x02 + [32-byte X coordinate] (if Y coordinate is even)
    • 0x03 + [32-byte X coordinate] (if Y coordinate is odd).

P2TR output do not use SEC encoded public keys in any respect, however uncooked “x-only” public keys, by which solely the 32-byte X coordinate itself is revealed. The used BIP340 signature scheme is constructed in such a manner that the Y coordinate doesn’t matter.