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After branching off for a major version release of Bitcoin Core, use this template to create the initial release notes draft.
The release notes draft is a temporary file that can be added to by anyone. See /doc/developer-notes.md#release-notes for the process.
Create the draft, named "version Release Notes Draft" (e.g. "0.20.0 Release Notes Draft"), as a collaborative wiki in:
https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoin-devwiki/wiki/
Before the final release, move the notes back to this git repository.
version Release Notes Draft
Bitcoin Core version version is now available from:
https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-*version*/
This release includes 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).
Upgrading directly from a version of Bitcoin Core that has reached its EOL is possible, but it might take some time if the datadir 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. 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 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.
In addition to previously supported CPU platforms, this release's pre-compiled distribution provides binaries for the RISC-V platform.
Notable changes
Build System
-
OpenSSL is no longer used by Bitcoin Core. The last usage of the library was removed in #17265.
-
glibc 2.17 or greater is now required to run the release binaries. This retains compatibility with RHEL 7, CentOS 7, Debian 8 and Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Further details can be found in #17538.
New RPCs
New settings
Updated settings
Updated RPCs
Note: some low-level RPC changes mainly useful for testing are described in the Low-level Changes section below.
GUI changes
- The "Start Bitcoin Core on system login" option has been removed on macOS.
Wallet
- The wallet now by default uses bech32 addresses when using RPC, and creates native segwit change outputs.
- The way that output trust was computed has been fixed in #16766, which impacts confirmed/unconfirmed balance status and coin selection.
Low-level changes
Tests
-fallbackfee
was 0 (disabled) by default for the main chain, but 0.0002 by default for the test chains. Now it is 0 by default for all chains. Testnet and regtest users will have to addfallbackfee=0.0002
to their configuration if they weren't setting it and they want it to keep working like before. (#16524)
Credits
Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:
As well as to everyone that helped with translations on Transifex.