Bitcoin Core version 28.1 is now available from:

https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-28.1

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.

Running Bitcoin Core binaries on macOS requires self signing.

cd /path/to/bitcoin-28.x/bin
xattr -d com.apple.quarantine bitcoin-cli bitcoin-qt bitcoin-tx bitcoin-util bitcoin-wallet bitcoind test_bitcoin
codesign -s - bitcoin-cli bitcoin-qt bitcoin-tx bitcoin-util bitcoin-wallet bitcoind test_bitcoin

Compatibility

Bitcoin Core is supported and extensively tested on operating systems using the Linux Kernel 3.17+, macOS 11.0+, 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.

Notable changes

P2P

• When the -port configuration option is used, the default onion listening port will now be derived to be that port + 1 instead of being set to a fixed value (8334 on mainnet). This re-allows setups with multiple local nodes using different -port and not using -bind, which would lead to a startup failure in v28.0 due to a port collision.

  Note that a HiddenServicePort manually configured in torrc may need adjustment if used in connection with the -port option. For example, if you are using -port=5555 with a non-standard value and not using -bind=...=onion, previously Bitcoin Core would listen for incoming Tor connections on 127.0.0.1:8334. Now it would listen on 127.0.0.1:5556 (-port plus one). If you configured the hidden service manually in torrc now you have to change it from HiddenServicePort 8333 127.0.0.1:8334 to HiddenServicePort 8333 127.0.0.1:5556, or configure bitcoind with -bind=127.0.0.1:8334=onion to get the previous behavior. (#31223)

• #30568 addrman: change internal id counting to int64_t

Key

• #31166 key: clear out secret data in DecodeExtKey

Build

• #31013 depends: For mingw cross compile use -gcc-posix to prevent library conflict
• #31502 depends: Fix CXXFLAGS on NetBSD

Test

• #31016 test: add missing sync to feature_fee_estimation.py
• #31448 fuzz: add cstdlib to FuzzedDataProvider
• #31419 test: fix MIN macro redefinition
• #31563 rpc: Extend scope of validation mutex in generateblock

Doc

• #31007 doc: add testnet4 section header for config file

CI

• #30961 ci: add LLVM_SYMBOLIZER_PATH to Valgrind fuzz job

Misc

• #31267 refactor: Drop deprecated space in operator""_mst
• #31431 util: use explicit cast in MultiIntBitSet::Fill()

Credits

Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:

• fanquake
• Hennadii Stepanov
• laanwj
• MarcoFalke
• Martin Zumsande
• Marnix
• Sebastian Falbesoner

As well as to everyone that helped with translations on Transifex.