(note: this is a temporary file, to be added-to by anybody, and moved to
release-notes at release time)
Bitcoin Core version *version* is now available from:
This is a new major version release, including new features, various bugfixes
and performance improvements, as well as updated translations.
Please report bugs using the issue tracker at GitHub:
To receive security and update notifications, please subscribe to:
How to Upgrade
==============
If you are running an older version, shut it down. Wait until it has completely
shut down (which might take a few minutes for older versions), then run the
installer (on Windows) or just copy over `/Applications/Bitcoin-Qt` (on Mac)
or `bitcoind`/`bitcoin-qt` (on Linux).
The first time you run version 0.15.0, your chainstate database will be converted to a
new format, which will take anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour,
depending on the speed of your machine.
Note that the block database format also changed in version 0.8.0 and there is no
automatic upgrade code from before version 0.8 to version 0.15.0. Upgrading
directly from 0.7.x and earlier without redownloading the blockchain is not supported.
However, as usual, old wallet versions are still supported.
Downgrading warning
-------------------
The chainstate database for this release is not compatible with previous
releases, so if you run 0.15 and then decide to switch back to any
older version, you will need to run the old release with the `-reindex-chainstate`
option to rebuild the chainstate data structures in the old format.
If your node has pruning enabled, this will entail re-downloading and
processing the entire blockchain.
Compatibility
==============
Bitcoin Core is supported and extensively tested on operating systems using
the Linux kernel, macOS 10.10+, and Windows 7 and newer. It is not recommended
to use Bitcoin Core on unsupported systems.
Bitcoin Core should also work on most other Unix-like systems but is not
frequently tested on them.
From 0.17.0 onwards, macOS <10.10 is no longer supported. 0.17.0 is
built using Qt 5.9.x, which doesn't support versions of macOS older than
10.10. Additionally, Bitcoin Core does not yet change appearance when
macOS "dark mode" is activated.
In addition to previously-supported CPU platforms, this release's
pre-compiled distribution also provides binaries for the RISC-V
platform.
Notable changes
===============
Mining
------
- Calls to `getblocktemplate` will fail if the segwit rule is not specified.
Calling `getblocktemplate` without segwit specified is almost certainly
a misconfiguration since doing so results in lower rewards for the miner.
Failed calls will produce an error message describing how to enable the
segwit rule.
Configuration option changes
----------------------------
- A warning is printed if an unrecognized section name is used in the
configuration file. Recognized sections are `[test]`, `[main]`, and
`[regtest]`.
- Four new options are available for configuring the maximum number of
messages that ZMQ will queue in memory (the "high water mark") before
dropping additional messages. The default value is 1,000, the same as
was used for previous releases. See the [ZMQ
documentation](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/zmq.md#usage)
for details.
- The `enablebip61` option (introduced in Bitcoin Core 0.17.0) is
used to toggle sending of BIP 61 reject messages. Reject messages have no use
case on the P2P network and are only logged for debugging by most network
nodes. The option will now by default be off for improved privacy and security
as well as reduced upload usage. The option can explicitly be turned on for
local-network debugging purposes.
- The `rpcallowip` option can no longer be used to automatically listen
on all network interfaces. Instead, the `rpcbind` parameter must also
be used to specify the IP addresses to listen on. Listening for RPC
commands over a public network connection is insecure and should be
disabled, so a warning is now printed if a user selects such a
configuration. If you need to expose RPC in order to use a tool
like Docker, ensure you only bind RPC to your localhost, e.g. `docker
run [...] -p 127.0.0.1:8332:8332` (this is an extra `:8332` over the
normal Docker port specification).
- The `rpcpassword` option now causes a startup error if the password
set in the configuration file contains a hash character (#), as it's
ambiguous whether the hash character is meant for the password or as a
comment.
- The `whitelistforcerelay` option is used to relay transactions from
whitelisted peers even when not accepted to the mempool. This option now
defaults to being off, so that changes in policy and disconnect/ban behavior
will not cause a node that is whitelisting another to be dropped by peers.
Users can still explicitly enable this behavior with the command line option
(and may want to consider letting the Bitcoin Core project know about their
use-case, as this feature could be deprecated in the future).
Documentation
-------------
- A new short
[document](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/JSON-RPC-interface.md)
about the JSON-RPC interface describes cases where the results of an
RPC might contain inconsistencies between data sourced from different
subsystems, such as wallet state and mempool state. A note is added
to the [REST interface documentation](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/REST-interface.md)
indicating that the same rules apply.
- A new [document](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/bitcoin-conf.md)
about the `bitcoin.conf` file describes how to use it to configure
Bitcoin Core.
- A new document introduces Bitcoin Core's BIP174
[Partially-Signed Bitcoin Transactions (PSBT)](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/psbt.md)
interface, which is used to allow multiple programs to collaboratively
work to create, sign, and broadcast new transactions. This is useful
for offline (cold storage) wallets, multisig wallets, coinjoin
implementations, and many other cases where two or more programs need
to interact to generate a complete transaction.
- The [output script descriptor](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/descriptors.md)
documentation has been updated with information about new features in
this still-developing language for describing the output scripts that
a wallet or other program wants to receive notifications for, such as
which addresses it wants to know received payments. The language is
currently used in the `scantxoutset` RPC and is expected to be adapted
to other RPCs and to the underlying wallet structure.
Build system changes
--------------------
- A new `--disable-bip70` option may be passed to `./configure` to
prevent Bitcoin-Qt from being built with support for the BIP70 payment
protocol or from linking libssl. As the payment protocol has exposed
Bitcoin Core to libssl vulnerabilities in the past, builders who don't
need BIP70 support are encouraged to use this option to reduce their
exposure to future vulnerabilities.
Deprecated or removed RPCs
--------------------------
- The `signrawtransaction` RPC is removed after being deprecated and
hidden behind a special configuration option in version 0.17.0.
- The 'account' API is removed after being deprecated in v0.17. The
'label' API was introduced in v0.17 as a replacement for accounts.
See the [release notes from v0.17](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/release-notes/release-notes-0.17.0.md#label-and-account-apis-for-wallet)
for a full description of the changes from the 'account' API to the
'label' API.
- The `addwitnessaddress` RPC is removed after being deprecated in
version 0.13.0.
- The wallet's `generate` RPC method is deprecated and will be fully
removed in a subsequent major version. This RPC is only used for
testing, but its implementation reached across multiple subsystems
(wallet and mining), so it is being deprecated to simplify the
wallet-node interface. Projects that are using `generate` for testing
purposes should transition to using the `generatetoaddress` RPC, which
does not require or use the wallet component. Calling
`generatetoaddress` with an address returned by the `getnewaddress`
RPC gives the same functionality as the old `generate` RPC. To
continue using `generate` in this version, restart bitcoind with the
`-deprecatedrpc=generate` configuration option.
New RPCs
--------
- A new `getnodeaddresses` RPC returns peer addresses known to this
node. It may be used to find nodes to connect to without using a DNS
seeder.
- A new `listwalletdir` RPC returns a list of wallets in the wallet
directory (either the default wallet directory or the directory
configured by the `-walletdir` parameter).
Updated RPCs
------------
Note: some low-level RPC changes mainly useful for testing are described
in the Low-level Changes section below.
- The `getpeerinfo` RPC now returns an additional `minfeefilter` field
set to the peer's BIP133 fee filter. You can use this to detect that
you have peers that are willing to accept transactions below the
default minimum relay fee.
- The mempool RPCs, such as `getrawmempool` with `verbose=true`, now
return an additional "bip125-replaceable" value indicating whether the
transaction (or its unconfirmed ancestors) opts-in to asking nodes and
miners to replace it with a higher-feerate transaction spending any of
the same inputs.
- The `settxfee` RPC previously silently ignored attempts to set the fee
below the allowed minimums. It now prints a warning. The special
value of "0" may still be used to request the minimum value.
- The `getaddressinfo` RPC now provides an `ischange` field indicating
whether the wallet used the address in a change output.
- The `importmulti` RPC has been updated to support P2WSH, P2WPKH,
P2SH-P2WPKH, and P2SH-P2WSH. Requests for P2WSH and P2SH-P2WSH accept
an additional `witnessscript` parameter.
- The `importmulti` RPC now returns an additional `warnings` field for
each request with an array of strings explaining when fields are being
ignored or are inconsistent, if there are any.
- The `getaddressinfo` RPC now returns an additional `solvable` boolean
field when Bitcoin Core knows enough about the address's scriptPubKey,
optional redeemScript, and optional witnessScript in order for the
wallet to be able to generate an unsigned input spending funds sent to
that address.
- The `getaddressinfo`, `listunspent`, and `scantxoutset` RPCs now
return an additional `desc` field that contains an output descriptor
containing all key paths and signing information for the address
(except for the private key). The `desc` field is only returned for
`getaddressinfo` and `listunspent` when the address is solvable.
- The `importprivkey` RPC will preserve previously-set labels for
addresses or public keys corresponding to the private key being
imported. For example, if you imported a watch-only address with the
label "cold wallet" in earlier releases of Bitcoin Core, subsequently
importing the private key would default to resetting the address's
label to the default empty-string label (""). In this release, the
previous label of "cold wallet" will be retained. If you optionally
specify any label besides the default when calling `importprivkey`,
the new label will be applied to the address.
- See the [Mining](#mining) section for changes to `getblocktemplate`.
- The `getrawtransaction` RPC no longer checks the unspent UTXO set for
a transaction. The remaining behaviors are as follows: 1. If a
blockhash is provided, check the corresponding block. 2. If no
blockhash is provided, check the mempool. 3. If no blockhash is
provided but txindex is enabled, also check txindex.
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
------------------------------
- A new Window menu is added alongside the existing File, Settings, and
Help menus. Several items from the other menus that opened new
windows have been moved to this new Window menu.
- In the Send tab, the checkbox for "pay only the required fee"
has been removed. Instead, the user can simply decrease the value in
the Custom Feerate field all the way down to the node's configured
minimum relay fee.
- In the Overview tab, the watch-only balance will be the only
balance shown if the wallet was created using the `createwallet` RPC
and the `disable_private_keys` parameter was set to true.
- The launch-on-startup option is no longer available on macOS if
compiled with macosx min version greater than 10.11 (use
CXXFLAGS="-mmacosx-version-min=10.11"
CFLAGS="-mmacosx-version-min=10.11" for setting the deployment
sdk version)
Low-level changes
=================
RPC
---
- The `submitblock` RPC previously returned the reason a rejected block
was invalid the first time it processed that block but returned a
generic "duplicate" rejection message on subsequent occasions it
processed the same block. It now always returns the fundamental
reason for rejecting an invalid block and only returns "duplicate" for
valid blocks it has already accepted.
- A new `submitheader` RPC allows submitting block headers independently
from their block. This is likely only useful for testing.
Configuration
-------------
- The `-usehd` configuration option was removed in version 0.16. From
that version onwards, all new wallets created are hierarchical
deterministic wallets. This release makes specifying `-usehd` an
invalid configuration option.
Changes for particular platforms
--------------------------------
- On macOS, Bitcoin Core now opts out of application CPU throttling
("app nap") during initial blockchain download, when catching up from
over 100 blocks behind the current chain tip, or when reindexing chain
data. This helps prevent these operations from taking an excessively
long time because the operating system is attempting to conserve
power.
Credits
=======
Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:
As well as everyone that helped translating on [Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/bitcoin/).