Bitcoin Core version 0.18.1 is now available from:

  <https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.18.1/>

This is a new minor version release, including new features, 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 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 or newer, 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 or later. Upgrading directly from 0.7.x and earlier without
redownloading the blockchain is not supported.  However, as usual, old
wallet versions are still supported.

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
as 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.

Known issues
============

Wallet GUI
----------

For advanced users who have both (1) enabled coin control features, and
(2) are using multiple wallets loaded at the same time: The coin control
input selection dialog can erroneously retain wrong-wallet state when
switching wallets using the dropdown menu. For now, it is recommended
not to use coin control features with multiple wallets loaded.

0.18.1 change log
=================

### P2P protocol and network code
- #15990 Add tests and documentation for blocksonly (MarcoFalke)
- #16021 Avoid logging transaction decode errors to stderr (MarcoFalke)
- #16405 fix: tor: Call `event_base_loopbreak` from the event's callback (promag)
- #16412 Make poll in InterruptibleRecv only filter for POLLIN events (tecnovert)

### Wallet
- #15913 Add -ignorepartialspends to list of ignored wallet options (luke-jr)

### RPC and other APIs
- #15991 Bugfix: fix pruneblockchain returned prune height (jonasschnelli)
- #15899 Document iswitness flag and fix bug in converttopsbt (MarcoFalke)
- #16026 Ensure that uncompressed public keys in a multisig always returns a legacy address (achow101)
- #14039 Disallow extended encoding for non-witness transactions (sipa)
- #16210 add 2nd arg to signrawtransactionwithkey examples (dooglus)
- #16250 signrawtransactionwithkey: report error when missing redeemScript/witnessScript (ajtowns)

### GUI
- #16044 fix the bug of OPEN CONFIGURATION FILE on Mac (shannon1916)
- #15957 Show "No wallets available" in open menu instead of nothing (meshcollider)
- #16118 Enable open wallet menu on setWalletController (promag)
- #16135 Set progressDialog to nullptr (promag)
- #16231 Fix open wallet menu initialization order (promag) 
- #16254 Set `AA_EnableHighDpiScaling` attribute early (hebasto) 
- #16122 Enable console line edit on setClientModel (promag) 
- #16348 Assert QMetaObject::invokeMethod result (promag)

### Build system
- #15985 Add test for GCC bug 90348 (sipa)
- #15947 Install bitcoin-wallet manpage (domob1812)
- #15983 build with -fstack-reuse=none (MarcoFalke)

### Tests and QA
- #15826 Pure python EC (sipa)
- #15893 Add test for superfluous witness record in deserialization (instagibbs)
- #14818 Bugfix: test/functional/rpc_psbt: Remove check for specific error message that depends on uncertain assumptions (luke-jr)
- #15831 Add test that addmultisigaddress fails for watchonly addresses (MarcoFalke)

### Documentation
- #15890 Remove text about txes always relayed from -whitelist (harding)

### Miscellaneous
- #16095 Catch by reference not value in wallettool (kristapsk)
- #16205 Replace fprintf with tfm::format (MarcoFalke)

Credits
=======

Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:

- Andrew Chow
- Anthony Towns
- Chris Moore
- Daniel Kraft
- David A. Harding
- fanquake
- Gregory Sanders
- Hennadii Stepanov
- John Newbery
- Jonas Schnelli
- João Barbosa
- Kristaps Kaupe
- Luke Dashjr
- MarcoFalke
- Michele Federici
- Pieter Wuille
- Samuel Dobson
- shannon1916
- tecnovert
- Wladimir J. van der Laan

As well as everyone that helped translating on [Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/bitcoin/).