This is a new major version release, including new features, various bugfixes
and performance improvements, as well as updated translations.
@ -24,25 +23,21 @@ shut down (which might take a few minutes for older versions), then run the
@@ -24,25 +23,21 @@ 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
The first time you run a version newer than 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.
automatic upgrade code from before version 0.8 to versions higher than 0.15.0. Upgrading
directly from 0.7.x and earlier without re-downloading 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.
Wallets created in 0.16 and later are not compatible with versions prior to 0.16
and will not work if you try to use newly created wallets in older versions. Existing
wallets that were created with older versions are not affected by this.
Compatibility
==============
@ -56,27 +51,47 @@ frequently tested on them.
@@ -56,27 +51,47 @@ frequently tested on them.
Notable changes
===============
GCC 4.8.x
--------------
The minimum version of GCC required to compile Bitcoin Core is now 4.8. No effort will be
made to support older versions of GCC. See discussion in issue #11732 for more information.
Wallet changes
---------------
### Segwit Wallet
Bitcoin Core 0.16.0 introduces full support for segwit in the wallet and user interfaces. A new `-addresstype` argument has been added, which supports `legacy`, `p2sh-segwit` (default), and `bech32` addresses. It controls what kind of addresses are produced by `getnewaddress`, `getaccountaddress`, and `createmultisigaddress`. A `-changetype` argument has also been added, with the same options, and by default equal to `-addresstype`, to control which kind of change is used.
A new `address_type` parameter has been added to the `getnewaddress` and `addmultisigaddress` RPCs to specify which type of address to generate.
A `change_type` argument has been added to the `fundrawtransaction` RPC to override the `-changetype` argument for specific transactions.
- All segwit addresses created through `getnewaddress` or `*multisig` RPCs explicitly get their redeemscripts added to the wallet file. This means that downgrading after creating a segwit address will work, as long as the wallet file is up to date.
- All segwit keys in the wallet get an implicit redeemscript added, without it being written to the file. This means recovery of an old backup will work, as long as you use new software.
- All keypool keys that are seen used in transactions explicitly get their redeemscripts added to the wallet files. This means that downgrading after recovering from a backup that includes a segwit address will work
Note that some RPCs do not yet support segwit addresses. Notably, `signmessage`/`verifymessage` doesn't support segwit addresses, nor does `importmulti` at this time. `dumpwallet`/`importwallet` work, but will (in comments) list the corresponding P2PKH addresses for all keys, even those only used in segwit addresses. Support for segwit in those RPCs will continue to be added in future versions.
P2WPKH change outputs are now used by default if any destination in the transaction is a P2WPKH or P2WSH output. This is done to ensure the change output is as indistinguishable from the other outputs as possible in either case.
### BIP173 (Bech32) Address support ("bc1..." addresses)
Full support for native segwit addresses (BIP173 / Bech32) has now been added.
This includes the ability to send to BIP173 addresses (including non-v0 ones), and generating these
addresses (including as default new addresses, see above).
A checkbox has been added to the GUI to select whether a Bech32 address or P2SH-wrapped address should be generated when using segwit addresses. When launched with `-addresstype=bech32` it is checked by default. When launched with `-addresstype=legacy` it is unchecked and disabled.
### HD-wallets by default
HD-wallets by default
---------------------
Due to a backward-incompatible change in the wallet database, wallets created
with version 0.16.0 will be rejected by previous versions. Also, version 0.16.0
will only create hierarchical deterministic (HD) wallets.
Replace-By-Fee by default in GUI
--------------------------------
The send screen now uses BIP-125 RBF by default, regardless of `-walletrbf`.
### Replace-By-Fee by default in GUI
The send screen now uses BIP125 RBF by default, regardless of `-walletrbf`.
There is a checkbox to mark the transaction as final.
The RPC default remains unchanged: to use RBF, launch with `-walletrbf=1` or
use the `replaceable` argument for individual transactions.
Bitcoin Core now has more flexibility in where the wallets directory can be
located. Previously wallet database files were stored at the top level of the
@ -96,8 +111,62 @@ bitcoin data directory. The behavior is now:
@@ -96,8 +111,62 @@ bitcoin data directory. The behavior is now:
Care should be taken when choosing the wallets directory location, as if it
becomes unavailable during operation, funds may be lost.
Low-level RPC changes
----------------------
Build: Minimum GCC bumped to 4.8.x
------------------------------------
The minimum version of the GCC compiler required to compile Bitcoin Core is now 4.8. No effort will be
made to support older versions of GCC. See discussion in issue #11732 for more information.
The minimum version for the Clang compiler is still 3.3. Other minimum dependency versions can be found in `doc/dependencies.md` in the repository.
Support for signalling pruned nodes (BIP159)
---------------------------------------------
Pruned nodes can now signal BIP159's NODE_NETWORK_LIMITED using service bits, in preparation for
full BIP159 support in later versions. This would allow pruned nodes to serve the most recent blocks. However, the current change does not yet include support for connecting to these pruned peers.
Performance: SHA256 assembly enabled by default
-------------------------------------------------
The SHA256 hashing optimizations for architectures supporting SSE4, which lead to ~50% speedups in SHA256 on supported hardware (~5% faster synchronization and block validation), have now been enabled by default. In previous versions they were enabled using the `--enable-experimental-asm` flag when building, but are now the default and no longer deemed experimental.
GUI changes
-----------
- Uses of "µBTC" in the GUI now also show the more colloquial term "bits", specified in BIP176.
- The option to reuse a previous address has now been removed. This was justified by the need to "resend" an invoice, but now that we have the request history, that need should be gone.
- Support for searching by TXID has been added, rather than just address and label.
- A "Use available balance" option has been added to the send coins dialog, to add the remaining available wallet balance to a transaction output.
- A toggle for unblinding the password fields on the password dialog has been added.
RPC changes
------------
### New `rescanblockchain` RPC
A new RPC `rescanblockchain` has been added to manually invoke a blockchain rescan.
The RPC supports start and end-height arguments for the rescan, and can be used in a
multiwallet environment to rescan the blockchain at runtime.
### New `savemempool` RPC
A new `savemempool` RPC has been added which allows the current mempool to be saved to
disk at any time to avoid it being lost due to crashes / power loss.
### Safe mode disabled by default
Safe mode is now disabled by default and must be manually enabled (with `-disablesafemode=0`) if you wish to use it. Safe mode is a feature that disables a subset of RPC calls - mostly related to the wallet and sending - automatically in case certain problem conditions with the network are detected. However, developers have come to regard these checks as not reliable enough to act on automatically. Even with safe mode disabled, they will still cause warnings in the `warnings` field of the `getneworkinfo` RPC and launch the `-alertnotify` command.
### Renamed script for creating JSON-RPC credentials
The `share/rpcuser/rpcuser.py` script was renamed to `share/rpcauth/rpcauth.py`. This script can be
used to create `rpcauth` credentials for a JSON-RPC user.
### Validateaddress improvements
The `validateaddress` RPC output has been extended with a few new fields, and support for segwit addresses (both P2SH and Bech32). Specifically:
* A new field `iswitness` is True for P2WPKH and P2WSH addresses ("bc1..." addresses), but not for P2SH-wrapped segwit addresses (see below).
* The existing field `isscript` will now also report True for P2WSH addresses.
* A new field `embedded` is present for all script addresses where the script is known and matches something that can be interpreted as a known address. This is particularly true for P2SH-P2WPKH and P2SH-P2WSH addresses. The value for `embedded` includes much of the information `validateaddress` would report if invoked directly on the embedded address.
* For multisig scripts a new `pubkeys` field was added that reports the full public keys involved in the script (if known). This is a replacement for the existing `addresses` field (which reports the same information but encoded as P2PKH addresses), represented in a more useful and less confusing way. The `addresses` field remains present for non-segwit addresses for backward compatibility.
* For all single-key addresses with known key (even when wrapped in P2SH or P2WSH), the `pubkey` field will be present. In particular, this means that invoking `validateaddress` on the output of `getnewaddress` will always report the `pubkey`, even when the address type is P2SH-P2WPKH.
### Low-level changes
- The deprecated RPC `getinfo` was removed. It is recommended that the more specific RPCs are used:
- The wallet RPC `getreceivedbyaddress` will return an error if called with an address not in the wallet.
- The wallet RPC `addwitnessaddress` was deprecated and will be removed in version 0.17,
set the `address_type` argument of `getnewaddress`, or option `-addresstype=[bech32|p2sh-segwit]` instead.
Changed command-line options
-----------------------------
- `-debuglogfile=<file>` can be used to specify an alternative debug logging file.
Renamed script for creating JSON-RPC credentials
-----------------------------
The `share/rpcuser/rpcuser.py` script was renamed to `share/rpcauth/rpcauth.py`. This script can be
used to create `rpcauth` credentials for a JSON-RPC user.
- `dumpwallet` now includes hex-encoded scripts from the wallet in the dumpfile, and
`importwallet` now imports these scripts, but corresponding addresses may not be added
correctly or a manual rescan may be required to find relevant transactions.
- The RPC `getblockchaininfo` now includes an `errors` field.
- A new `blockhash` parameter has been added to the `getrawtransaction` RPC which allows for a raw transaction to be fetched from a specific block if known, even without `-txindex` enabled.
- The `decoderawtransaction` and `fundrawtransaction` RPCs now have optional `iswitness` parameters to override the
heuristic witness checks if necessary.
- The `walletpassphrase` timeout is now clamped to 2^30 seconds.
- Using addresses with the `createmultisig` RPC is now deprecated, and will be removed in a later version. Public keys should be used instead.
- Blockchain rescans now no longer lock the wallet for the entire rescan process, so other RPCs can now be used at the same time (although results of balances / transactions may be incorrect or incomplete until the rescan is complete).
- The `logging` RPC has now been made public rather than hidden.
- An `initialblockdownload` boolean has been added to the `getblockchaininfo` RPC to indicate whether the node is currently in IDB or not.
- `minrelaytxfee` is now included in the output of `getmempoolinfo`
Other changed command-line options
----------------------------------
- `-debuglogfile=<file>` can be used to specify an alternative debug logging file.
- bitcoin-cli now has an `-stdinrpcpass` option to allow the RPC password to be read from standard input.
- The `-usehd` option has been removed.
- bitcoin-cli now supports a new `-getinfo` flag which returns an output like that of the now-removed `getinfo` RPC.
Testing changes
----------------
- The default regtest JSON-RPC port has been changed to 18443 to avoid conflict with testnet's default of 18332.
- Segwit is now always active in regtest mode by default.
Known Issues
------------
- Occasionally shutting down the Bitcoin Core GUI during the startup and loading phase will cause an assertion error.
0.16.0 change log
------------------
### Block and transaction handling
- #10953`aeed345` Combine scriptPubKey and amount as CTxOut in CScriptCheck (jl2012)
- #11309`93d20a7` Minor cleanups for AcceptToMemoryPool (morcos)
- #11418`38c201f` Add error string for CLEANSTACK script violation (maaku)
- #11411`339da9c` Change SignatureHash input index check to an assert (jimpo)
- #11406`e12522d` Add state message print to AcceptBlock failure message (TheBlueMatt)
- #11062`26fee4f` Mark mempool import fails that were found in mempool as 'already there' (kallewoof)
- #11269`61fb806` CTxMemPoolEntry::UpdateAncestorState: modifySiagOps param type (donaloconnor)
- #11747`e970396` Fix: Open files read only if requested (Elbandi)
- #11737`46d1ebf` Document partial validation in ConnectBlock() (sdaftuar)
- #10699`c090262` Make all script validation flags backward compatible (sipa)
- #10279`214046f` Add a CChainState class to validation.cpp to take another step towards clarifying internal interfaces (TheBlueMatt)
- #11824`d9fdac1` Block ActivateBestChain to empty validationinterface queue (TheBlueMatt)
- #12127`9501dc2` Remove unused mempool index (sdaftuar)
- #12118`44080a9` Sort mempool by min(feerate, ancestor_feerate) (sdaftuar)
- #8498`0e3a411` Minimize the number of times it is checked that no money... (jtimon)
### P2P protocol and network code
- #10596`6866b49` Add vConnect to CConnman::Options (benma)
- #10663`9d31ed2` Split resolve out of connect (theuni)
- #11113`fef65c4` Ignore getheaders requests for very old side blocks (jimpo)
- #11585`5aeaa9c` addrman: Add missing lock in Clear() (CAddrMan) (practicalswift)
MarcoFalke
7 years ago