diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index aaff681cd..3b8ea1a88 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ The bitcoinj library is a Java implementation of the Bitcoin protocol, which all
 ### Technologies
 
 * Java 8+ (needs Java 8 API or Android 7.0 API, compiles to Java 8 bytecode) and Gradle 4.4+ for the `core` module
-* Java 8+ and Gradle 4.4+ for `tools` and `examples`
+* Java 11+ and Gradle 4.4+ for `tools` and `examples`
 * Java 11+ and Gradle 4.10+ for the JavaFX-based `wallettemplate`
 * [Gradle](https://gradle.org/) - for building the project
 * [Google Protocol Buffers](https://github.com/google/protobuf) - for use with serialization and hardware communications
diff --git a/examples/build.gradle b/examples/build.gradle
index 9d16cdf91..69bcdd10f 100644
--- a/examples/build.gradle
+++ b/examples/build.gradle
@@ -10,11 +10,11 @@ dependencies {
     implementation 'org.fusesource.leveldbjni:leveldbjni-all:1.8'
 }
 
-sourceCompatibility = 8
+sourceCompatibility = 11
 compileJava.options.encoding = 'UTF-8'
 compileTestJava.options.encoding = 'UTF-8'
 javadoc.options.encoding = 'UTF-8'
 
 compileJava {
-    options.compilerArgs.addAll(['--release', '8'])
+    options.compilerArgs.addAll(['--release', '11'])
 }
diff --git a/tools/build.gradle b/tools/build.gradle
index fe24e178c..b8950e3e2 100644
--- a/tools/build.gradle
+++ b/tools/build.gradle
@@ -10,13 +10,13 @@ dependencies {
     implementation 'org.slf4j:slf4j-jdk14:1.7.32'
 }
 
-sourceCompatibility = 8
+sourceCompatibility = 11
 compileJava.options.encoding = 'UTF-8'
 compileTestJava.options.encoding = 'UTF-8'
 javadoc.options.encoding = 'UTF-8'
 
 compileJava {
-    options.compilerArgs.addAll(['--release', '8'])
+    options.compilerArgs.addAll(['--release', '11'])
 }
 
 mainClassName = "org.bitcoinj.tools.WalletTool"