(note: this is a temporary file, to be added-to by anybody, and moved to
release-notes at release time)

Bitcoin Core version *version* is now available from:

  <https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-*version*/>

This is a new major version release, including new features, various bugfixes
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/>

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

Microsoft ended support for Windows XP on [April 8th, 2014](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/WindowsForBusiness/end-of-xp-support),
an OS initially released in 2001. This means that not even critical security
updates will be released anymore. Without security updates, using a bitcoin
wallet on a XP machine is irresponsible at least.

In addition to that, with 0.12.x there have been varied reports of Bitcoin Core
randomly crashing on Windows XP. It is [not clear](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/7681#issuecomment-217439891)
what the source of these crashes is, but it is likely that upstream
libraries such as Qt are no longer being tested on XP.

We do not have time nor resources to provide support for an OS that is
end-of-life. From 0.13.0 on, Windows XP is no longer supported. Users are
suggested to upgrade to a newer version of Windows, or install an alternative OS
that is supported.

No attempt is made to prevent installing or running the software on Windows XP,
you can still do so at your own risk, but do not expect it to work: do not
report issues about Windows XP to the issue tracker.

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

Low-level RPC changes
----------------------

- `importprunedfunds` only accepts two required arguments. Some versions accept
  an optional third arg, which was always ignored. Make sure to never pass more
  than two arguments.

Removal of Priority Estimation
-------------------------------

- Estimation of "priority" needed for a transaction to be included within a target
  number of blocks has been removed.  The rpc calls are deprecated and will either
  return -1 or 1e24 appropriately. The format for `fee_estimates.dat` has also
  changed to no longer save these priority estimates. It will automatically be
  converted to the new format which is not readable by prior versions of the
  software.

- The concept of "priority" transactions is planned to be removed in the next
  major version. To prepare for this, the default for the rate limit of priority
  transactions (`-limitfreerelay`) has been set to `0` kB/minute.

P2P connection management
--------------------------

- Peers manually added through the addnode option or addnode RPC now have their own
  limit of eight connections which does not compete with other inbound or outbound
  connection usage and is not subject to the maxconnections limitation.

- New connections to manually added peers are much faster.

Introduction of assumed-valid blocks
-------------------------------------

- A significant portion of the initial block download time is spent verifying
  scripts/signatures.  Although the verification must pass to ensure the security
  of the system, no other result from this verification is needed: If the node
  knew the history of a given block were valid it could skip checking scripts
  for its ancestors.

- A new configuration option 'assumevalid' is provided to express this knowledge
  to the software.  Unlike the 'checkpoints' in the past this setting does not
  force the use of a particular chain: chains that are consistent with it are
  processed quicker, but other chains are still accepted if they'd otherwise
  be chosen as best. Also unlike 'checkpoints' the user can configure which
  block history is assumed true, this means that even outdated software can
  sync more quickly if the setting is updated by the user.

- Because the validity of a chain history is a simple objective fact it is much
  easier to review this setting.  As a result the software ships with a default
  value adjusted to match the current chain shortly before release.  The use
  of this default value can be disabled by setting -assumevalid=0

0.14.0 Change log
=================

Detailed release notes follow. This overview includes changes that affect
behavior, not code moves, refactors and string updates. For convenience in locating
the code changes and accompanying discussion, both the pull request and
git merge commit are mentioned.

### RPC and REST

UTXO set query (`GET /rest/getutxos/<checkmempool>/<txid>-<n>/<txid>-<n>/.../<txid>-<n>.<bin|hex|json>`) responses
were changed to return status code HTTP_BAD_REQUEST (400) instead of HTTP_INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR (500) when requests
contain invalid parameters.

The first boolean argument to `getaddednodeinfo` has been removed. This is an incompatible change.

Call "getmininginfo" loses the "testnet" field in favor of the more generic "chain" (which has been present for years).

### Configuration and command-line options

### Block and transaction handling

### P2P protocol and network code

### Validation

### Build system

### Wallet

### GUI

### Tests

### Miscellaneous

Credits
=======

Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:


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