0.20.1 Release Notes
====================

Bitcoin Core version 0.20.1 is now available from:

  <https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.20.1/>

This minor release includes various bug fixes and performance
improvements, as well as updated translations.

Please report bugs using the issue tracker at GitHub:

  <https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues>

To receive security and update notifications, please subscribe to:

  <https://bitcoincore.org/en/list/announcements/join/>

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 in some cases), then run the
installer (on Windows) or just copy over `/Applications/Bitcoin-Qt` (on Mac)
or `bitcoind`/`bitcoin-qt` (on Linux).

Upgrading directly from a version of Bitcoin Core that has reached its EOL is
possible, but it might take some time if the data directory needs to be migrated. Old
wallet versions of Bitcoin Core are generally supported.

Compatibility
==============

Bitcoin Core is supported and extensively tested on operating systems
using the Linux kernel, macOS 10.12+, and Windows 7 and newer.  Bitcoin
Core should also work on most other Unix-like systems but is not as
frequently tested on them.  It is not recommended to use Bitcoin Core on
unsupported systems.

From Bitcoin Core 0.20.0 onwards, macOS versions earlier than 10.12 are no
longer supported. Additionally, Bitcoin Core does not yet change appearance
when macOS "dark mode" is activated.

Known Bugs
==========

The process for generating the source code release ("tarball") has changed in an
effort to make it more complete, however, there are a few regressions in
this release:

- The generated `configure` script is currently missing, and you will need to
  install autotools and run `./autogen.sh` before you can run
  `./configure`. This is the same as when checking out from git.

- Instead of running `make` simply, you should instead run
  `BITCOIN_GENBUILD_NO_GIT=1 make`.

Notable changes
===============

Changes regarding misbehaving peers
-----------------------------------

Peers that misbehave (e.g. send us invalid blocks) are now referred to as
discouraged nodes in log output, as they're not (and weren't) strictly banned:
incoming connections are still allowed from them, but they're preferred for
eviction.

Furthermore, a few additional changes are introduced to how discouraged
addresses are treated:

- Discouraging an address does not time out automatically after 24 hours
  (or the `-bantime` setting). Depending on traffic from other peers,
  discouragement may time out at an indeterminate time.

- Discouragement is not persisted over restarts.

- There is no method to list discouraged addresses. They are not returned by
  the `listbanned` RPC. That RPC also no longer reports the `ban_reason`
  field, as `"manually added"` is the only remaining option.

- Discouragement cannot be removed with the `setban remove` RPC command.
  If you need to remove a discouragement, you can remove all discouragements by
  stop-starting your node.

Notification changes
--------------------

`-walletnotify` notifications are now sent for wallet transactions that are
removed from the mempool because they conflict with a new block. These
notifications were sent previously before the v0.19 release, but had been
broken since that release (bug
[#18325](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/18325)).

0.20.1 change log
=================

Credits
=======

Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:

As well as to everyone that helped with translations on
[Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/).