24.0.1 Release Notes ====================
Due to last-minute issues (#26616), 24.0, although tagged, was never fully announced or released.
Bitcoin Core version 24.0.1 is now available from:
<https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-24.0.1/>
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 in some cases), then run the
installer (on Windows) or just copy over /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt (on macOS)
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 10.15+, 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.
Notice of new option for transaction replacement policies =========================================================
This version of Bitcoin Core adds a new mempoolfullrbf configuration
option which allows users to change the policy their individual node
will use for relaying and mining unconfirmed transactions. The option
defaults to the same policy that was used in previous releases and no
changes to node policy will occur if everyone uses the default.
Some Bitcoin services today expect that the first version of an unconfirmed transaction that they see will be the version of the transaction that ultimately gets confirmed---a transaction acceptance policy sometimes called "first-seen".
The Bitcoin Protocol does not, and cannot, provide any assurance that the first version of an unconfirmed transaction seen by a particular node will be the version that gets confirmed. If there are multiple versions of the same unconfirmed transaction available, only the miner who includes one of those transactions in a block gets to decide which version of the transaction gets confirmed.
Despite this lack of assurance, multiple merchants and services today still make this assumption.
There are several benefits to users from removing this first-seen simplification. One key benefit, the ability for the sender of a transaction to replace it with an alternative version paying higher fees, was realized in [Bitcoin Core 0.12.0][] (February 2016) with the introduction of [BIP125][] opt-in Replace By Fee (RBF).
Since then, there has been discussion about completely removing the
first-seen simplification and allowing users to replace any of their
older unconfirmed transactions with newer transactions, a feature called
full-RBF. This release includes a mempoolfullrbf configuration
option that allows enabling full-RBF, although it defaults to off
(allowing only opt-in RBF).
Several alternative node implementations have already enabled full-RBF by default for years, and several contributors to Bitcoin Core are advocating for enabling full-RBF by default in a future version of Bitcoin Core.
As more nodes that participate in relay and mining begin enabling full-RBF, replacement of unconfirmed transactions by ones offering higher fees may rapidly become more reliable.
Contributors to this project strongly recommend that merchants and services not accept unconfirmed transactions as final, and if they insist on doing so, to take the appropriate steps to ensure they have some recourse or plan for when their assumptions do not hold.
[Bitcoin Core 0.12.0]: https://bitcoincore.org/en/releases/0.12.0/#opt-in-replace-by-fee-transactions [bip125]: https://github.com/bitcoin/bips/blob/master/bip-0125.mediawiki
Notable changes ===============
P2P and network changes
has been reworked. This is particularly relevant for nodes starting up for the first time (or for nodes which are starting up after being offline for a long time).
Whenever headers are received from a peer that have a total chainwork that is either
less than the node's -minimumchainwork value or is sufficiently below the work at
the node's tip, a "presync" phase will begin, in which the node will download the
peer's headers and verify the cumulative work on the peer's chain, prior to storing
those headers permanently. Once that cumulative work is verified to be sufficiently high,
the headers will be redownloaded from that peer and fully validated and stored.
This may result in initial headers sync taking longer for new nodes starting up for
the first time, both because the headers will be downloaded twice, and because the effect
of a peer disconnecting during the presync phase (or while the node's best headers chain has less
than -minimumchainwork), will result in the node needing to use the headers presync mechanism
with the next peer as well (downloading the headers twice, again). (#25717)
connection if -i2pacceptincoming=0. (#25355)
Updated RPCs
-deprecatedrpc=softforks configuration option has been removed. The RPC getblockchaininfo no longer returns the softforks field, which was
previously deprecated in 23.0. (#23508) Information on soft fork status is
now only available via the getdeploymentinfo RPC.
deprecatedrpc=exclude_coinbase configuration option has been removed. The receivedby RPCs (listreceivedbyaddress, listreceivedbylabel,
getreceivedbyaddress and getreceivedbylabel) now always return results
accounting for received coins from coinbase outputs, without an option to
change that behaviour. Excluding coinbases was previously deprecated in 23.0.
(#25171)
deprecatedrpc=fees configuration option has been removed. The top-level fee fields fee, modifiedfee, ancestorfees and descendantfees are no
longer returned by RPCs getmempoolentry, getrawmempool(verbose=true),
getmempoolancestors(verbose=true) and getmempooldescendants(verbose=true).
The same fee fields can be accessed through the fees object in the result.
The top-level fee fields were previously deprecated in 23.0. (#25204)
getpeerinfo RPC has been updated with a new presynced_headers field,indicating the progress on the presync phase mentioned in the "P2P and network changes" section above.
Changes to wallet related RPCs can be found in the Wallet section below.
New RPCs
sendall RPC spends specific UTXOs to one or more recipients without creating change. By default, the sendall RPC will spend
every UTXO in the wallet. sendall is useful to empty wallets or to
create a changeless payment from select UTXOs. When creating a payment
from a specific amount for which the recipient incurs the transaction
fee, continue to use the subtractfeefromamount option via the
send, sendtoaddress, or sendmany RPCs. (#24118)
gettxspendingprevout RPC has been added, which scans the mempool to findtransactions spending any of the given outpoints. (#24408)
simulaterawtransaction RPC iterates over the inputs and outputs of the giventransactions, and tallies up the balance change for the given wallet. This can be useful e.g. when verifying that a coin join like transaction doesn't contain unexpected inputs that the wallet will then sign for unintentionally. (#22751)
Updated REST APIs
/headers/ and /blockfilterheaders/ endpoints have been updated to usea query parameter instead of path parameter to specify the result count. The count parameter is now optional, and defaults to 5 for both endpoints. The old endpoints are still functional, and have no documented behaviour change.
For /headers, use
GET /rest/headers/<BLOCK-HASH>.<bin|hex|json>?count=<COUNT=5>
instead of
GET /rest/headers/<COUNT>/<BLOCK-HASH>.<bin|hex|json> (deprecated)
For /blockfilterheaders/, use
GET /rest/blockfilterheaders/<FILTERTYPE>/<BLOCK-HASH>.<bin|hex|json>?count=<COUNT=5>
instead of
GET /rest/blockfilterheaders/<FILTERTYPE>/<COUNT>/<BLOCK-HASH>.<bin|hex|json> (deprecated)
(#24098)
Build System
New settings
mempoolfullrbf option has been added, which enables the mempool toaccept transaction replacement without enforcing BIP125 replaceability signaling. (#25353)
Wallet
-walletrbf startup option will now default to true. Thewallet will now default to opt-in RBF on transactions that it creates. (#25610)
replaceable option for the createrawtransaction and createpsbt RPCs will now default to true. Transactions created
with these RPCs will default to having opt-in RBF enabled. (#25610)
wsh() output descriptor was extended with Miniscript support. You can import Miniscriptdescriptors for P2WSH in a watchonly wallet to track coins, but you can't spend from them using the Bitcoin Core wallet yet. You can find more about Miniscript on the reference website. (#24148)
tr() output descriptor now supports multisig scripts through the multi_a() and sortedmulti_a() functions. (#24043)
amounts are now randomized. (#24494)
listtransactions, gettransaction, and listsinceblockRPC methods now include a wtxid field (hash of serialized transaction, including witness data) for each transaction. (#24198)
listsinceblock, listtransactions and gettransaction output now contain a new parent_descs field for every "receive" entry. (#25504)
include_change parameter was added to the listsinceblock command.getreceivedbylabel now returns an error, "Label not foundin wallet" (-4), if the label is not in the address book. (#25122)
Migrating Legacy Wallets to Descriptor Wallets
An experimental RPC migratewallet has been added to migrate Legacy (non-descriptor) wallets to
Descriptor wallets. More information about the migration process is available in the
documentation.
GUI changes
proxy settings, UPNP preferences) are now saved to <datadir>/settings.json
file rather than to the Qt settings backend (windows registry or unix desktop
config files), so these settings will now apply to bitcoind, instead of being
ignored. (#15936, gui#602)
bitcoin.conf settings issimplified. Settings from bitcoin.conf are now displayed normally in the GUI
settings dialog, instead of in a separate warning message ("Options set in this
dialog are overridden by the configuration file: -setting=value"). And these
settings can now be edited because settings.json values take precedence over
bitcoin.conf values. (#15936)
Low-level changes =================
RPC
deriveaddresses, getdescriptorinfo, importdescriptors and scantxoutset commands now accept Miniscript expression within a wsh() descriptor. (#24148)
getaddressinfo, decodescript, listdescriptors and listunspent commands may now output a Miniscript descriptor inside a wsh() where a wsh(raw()) descriptor was previously returned. (#24148)
Credits =======
Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:
As well as to everyone that helped with translations on Transifex.