bitcoin/doc/release-notes/release-notes-0.16.1.md

Bitcoin Core version 0.16.1 is now available from:

https://bitcoincore.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.16.1/

This is a new minor version release, with various bugfixes 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).

The first time you run version 0.15.0 or newer, 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 or higher. 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

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

Bitcoin Core is extensively tested on multiple operating systems using the Linux kernel, macOS 10.8+, and Windows Vista and later. Windows XP is not supported.

Bitcoin Core should also work on most other Unix-like systems but is not frequently tested on them.

Notable changes

Miner block size removed

The -blockmaxsize option for miners to limit their blocks' sizes was deprecated in version 0.15.1, and has now been removed. Miners should use the -blockmaxweight option if they want to limit the weight of their blocks' weights.

0.16.1 change log

Policy

• #11423 d353dd1 [Policy] Several transaction standardness rules (jl2012)

Mining

• #12756 e802c22 [config] Remove blockmaxsize option (jnewbery)

Block and transaction handling

• #13199 c71e535 Bugfix: ensure consistency of m_failed_blocks after reconsiderblock (sdaftuar)
• #13023 bb79aaf Fix some concurrency issues in ActivateBestChain() (skeees)

P2P protocol and network code

• #12626 f60e84d Limit the number of IPs addrman learns from each DNS seeder (EthanHeilman)

Wallet

• #13265 5d8de76 Exit SyncMetaData if there are no transactions to sync (laanwj)
• #13030 5ff571e Fix zapwallettxes/multiwallet interaction. (jnewbery)

GUI

• #12999 1720eb3 Show the Window when double clicking the taskbar icon (ken2812221)
• #12650 f118a7a Fix issue: "default port not shown correctly in settings dialog" (251Labs)
• #13251 ea487f9 Rephrase Bech32 checkbox texts, and enable it with legacy address default (fanquake)

Build system

• #12474 b0f692f Allow depends system to support armv7l (hkjn)
• #12585 72a3290 depends: Switch to downloading expat from GitHub (fanquake)
• #12648 46ca8f3 test: Update trusted git root (MarcoFalke)
• #11995 686cb86 depends: Fix Qt build with Xcode 9 (fanquake)
• #12636 845838c backport: #11995 Fix Qt build with Xcode 9 (fanquake)
• #12946 e055bc0 depends: Fix Qt build with XCode 9.3 (fanquake)
• #12998 7847b92 Default to defining endian-conversion DECLs in compat w/o config (TheBlueMatt)

Tests and QA

• #12447 01f931b Add missing signal.h header (laanwj)
• #12545 1286f3e Use wait_until to ensure ping goes out (Empact)
• #12804 4bdb0ce Fix intermittent rpc_net.py failure. (jnewbery)
• #12553 0e98f96 Prefer wait_until over polling with time.sleep (Empact)
• #12486 cfebd40 Round target fee to 8 decimals in assert_fee_amount (kallewoof)
• #12843 df38b13 Test starting bitcoind with -h and -version (jnewbery)
• #12475 41c29f6 Fix python TypeError in script.py (MarcoFalke)
• #12638 0a76ed2 Cache only chain and wallet for regtest datadir (MarcoFalke)
• #12902 7460945 Handle potential cookie race when starting node (sdaftuar)
• #12904 6c26df0 Ensure bitcoind processes are cleaned up when tests end (sdaftuar)
• #13049 9ea62a3 Backports (MarcoFalke)
• #13201 b8aacd6 Handle disconnect_node race (sdaftuar)

Miscellaneous

• #12518 a17fecf Bump leveldb subtree (MarcoFalke)
• #12442 f3b8d85 devtools: Exclude patches from lint-whitespace (MarcoFalke)
• #12988 acdf433 Hold cs_main while calling UpdatedBlockTip() signal (skeees)
• #12985 0684cf9 Windows: Avoid launching as admin when NSIS installer ends. (JeremyRand)

Documentation

• #12637 60086dd backport: #12556 fix version typo in getpeerinfo RPC call help (fanquake)
• #13184 4087dd0 RPC Docs: gettxout*: clarify bestblock and unspent counts (harding)
• #13246 6de7543 Bump to Ubuntu Bionic 18.04 in build-windows.md (ken2812221)
• #12556 e730b82 Fix version typo in getpeerinfo RPC call help (tamasblummer)

Credits

Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:

• 251
• Ben Woosley
• Chun Kuan Lee
• David A. Harding
• e0
• fanquake
• Henrik Jonsson
• JeremyRand
• Jesse Cohen
• John Newbery
• Johnson Lau
• Karl-Johan Alm
• Luke Dashjr
• MarcoFalke
• Matt Corallo
• Pieter Wuille
• Suhas Daftuar
• Tamas Blummer
• Wladimir J. van der Laan

As well as everyone that helped translating on Transifex.