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@@ -19,24 +19,16 @@ To receive security and update notifications, please subscribe to:
Compatibility
==============
-Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on [April 8th, 2014](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/WindowsForBusiness/end-of-xp-support),
-an OS initially released in 2001. This means that not even critical security
-updates will be released anymore. Without security updates, using a bitcoin
-wallet on a XP machine is irresponsible at least.
+Bitcoin Core is extensively tested on multiple operating systems using
+the Linux kernel, macOS 10.8+, and Windows Vista and later.
-In addition to that, with 0.12.x there have been varied reports of Bitcoin Core
-randomly crashing on Windows XP. It is [not clear](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/7681#issuecomment-217439891)
-what the source of these crashes is, but it is likely that upstream
-libraries such as Qt are no longer being tested on XP.
+Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on [April 8th, 2014](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/WindowsForBusiness/end-of-xp-support).
+No attempt is made to prevent installing or running the software on Windows XP, you
+can still do so at your own risk but be aware that there are known instabilities.
+Please do not report issues about Windows XP to the issue tracker.
-We do not have time nor resources to provide support for an OS that is
-end-of-life. From 0.13.0 on, Windows XP is no longer supported. Users are
-suggested to upgrade to a newer version of Windows, or install an alternative OS
-that is supported.
-
-No attempt is made to prevent installing or running the software on Windows XP,
-you can still do so at your own risk, but do not expect it to work: do not
-report issues about Windows XP to the issue tracker.
+Bitcoin Core should also work on most other Unix-like systems but is not
+frequently tested on them.
Notable changes
===============
@@ -48,8 +40,19 @@ Low-level RPC changes
an optional third arg, which was always ignored. Make sure to never pass more
than two arguments.
+Fee Estimation Changes
+----------------------
+
+- Since 0.13.2 fee estimation for a confirmation target of 1 block has been
+ disabled. This is only a minor behavior change as there was often insufficient
+ data for this target anyway. `estimatefee 1` will now always return -1 and
+ `estimatesmartfee 1` will start searching at a target of 2.
+
+- The default target for fee estimation is changed to 6 blocks in both the GUI
+ (previously 25) and for RPC calls (previously 2).
+
Removal of Priority Estimation
-------------------------------
+-------------------------------
- Estimation of "priority" needed for a transaction to be included within a target
number of blocks has been removed. The rpc calls are deprecated and will either
@@ -58,9 +61,11 @@ Removal of Priority Estimation
converted to the new format which is not readable by prior versions of the
software.
-- The concept of "priority" transactions is planned to be removed in the next
- major version. To prepare for this, the default for the rate limit of priority
- transactions (`-limitfreerelay`) has been set to `0` kB/minute.
+- The concept of "priority" (coin age) transactions is planned to be removed in
+ the next major version. To prepare for this, the default for the rate limit of
+ priority transactions (`-limitfreerelay`) has been set to `0` kB/minute. This
+ is not to be confused with the `prioritisetransaction` RPC which will remain
+ supported for adding fee deltas to transactions.
P2P connection management
--------------------------
@@ -71,6 +76,27 @@ P2P connection management
- New connections to manually added peers are much faster.
+Introduction of assumed-valid blocks
+-------------------------------------
+
+- A significant portion of the initial block download time is spent verifying
+ scripts/signatures. Although the verification must pass to ensure the security
+ of the system, no other result from this verification is needed: If the node
+ knew the history of a given block were valid it could skip checking scripts
+ for its ancestors.
+
+- A new configuration option 'assumevalid' is provided to express this knowledge
+ to the software. Unlike the 'checkpoints' in the past this setting does not
+ force the use of a particular chain: chains that are consistent with it are
+ processed quicker, but other chains are still accepted if they'd otherwise
+ be chosen as best. Also unlike 'checkpoints' the user can configure which
+ block history is assumed true, this means that even outdated software can
+ sync more quickly if the setting is updated by the user.
+
+- Because the validity of a chain history is a simple objective fact it is much
+ easier to review this setting. As a result the software ships with a default
+ value adjusted to match the current chain shortly before release. The use
+ of this default value can be disabled by setting -assumevalid=0
0.14.0 Change log
=================
@@ -102,6 +128,16 @@ Call "getmininginfo" loses the "testnet" field in favor of the more generic "cha
### Wallet
+0.14.0 Fundrawtransaction change address reuse
+==============================================
+
+Before 0.14, `fundrawtransaction` was by default wallet stateless. In almost all cases `fundrawtransaction` does add a change-output to the outputs of the funded transaction. Before 0.14, the used keypool key was never marked as change-address key and directly returned to the keypool (leading to address reuse).
+Before 0.14, calling `getnewaddress` directly after `fundrawtransaction` did generate the same address as the change-output address.
+
+Since 0.14, fundrawtransaction does reserve the change-output-key from the keypool by default (optional by setting `reserveChangeKey`, default = `true`)
+
+Users should also consider using `getrawchangeaddress()` in conjunction with `fundrawtransaction`'s `changeAddress` option.
+
### GUI
### Tests