0.28.8

Bitcoin ABC 0.28.8 Release Notes

Bitcoin ABC version 0.28.8 is now available from:

https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.28.8/

This release includes the following features and fixes:

Wallet changes

Bitcoin ABC will no longer automatically create new wallets on startup. It will
load existing wallets specified by -wallet options on the command line or in
bitcoin.conf or settings.json files. And by default it will also load a
top-level unnamed ("") wallet. However, if specified wallets don't exist,
Bitcoin ABC will now just log warnings instead of creating new wallets with
new keys and addresses like previous releases did.
New wallets can be created through the GUI , through the bitcoin-cli createwallet
or bitcoin-wallet create commands, or the createwallet RPC.

P2P and network changes

To address a potential denial-of-service, the logic to download headers from peers
has been reworked. This is particularly relevant for nodes starting up for the first
time (or for nodes which are starting up after being offline for a long time).

Whenever headers are received from a peer that have a total chainwork that is either
less than the node’s -minimumchainwork value or is sufficiently below the work at the
node’s tip, a “presync” phase will begin, in which the node will download the peer’s
headers and verify the cumulative work on the peer’s chain, prior to storing those
headers permanently. Once that cumulative work is verified to be sufficiently high,
the headers will be redownloaded from that peer and fully validated and stored.

This may result in initial headers sync taking longer for new nodes starting up for
the first time, both because the headers will be downloaded twice, and because the
effect of a peer disconnecting during the presync phase (or while the node’s best
headers chain has less than -minimumchainwork), will result in the node needing to
use the headers presync mechanism with the next peer as well.

Updated RPC

The getpeerinfo RPC has been updated with a new presynced_headers field, indicating
the progress on the presync phase mentioned in the “P2P and network changes” section
above.

0.28.7

Bitcoin ABC 0.28.7 Release Notes

Bitcoin ABC version 0.28.7 is now available from:

https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.28.7/

This release includes the following features and fixes:

• Prevent stalling the block downloads by dynamically adjusting the timeout.
  This will help syncing the blockchain when the network connection speed is
  low.

0.28.6

Bitcoin ABC 0.28.6 Release Notes

Bitcoin ABC version 0.28.6 is now available from:

https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.28.6/

This is a maintenance release with no user-visible change.

0.28.5

Bitcoin ABC 0.28.5 Release Notes

Bitcoin ABC version 0.28.5 is now available from:

https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.28.5/

Updated settings

• If the -checkblocks or -checklevel options are explicitly provided by the
  user, but the verification checks cannot be completed due to an insufficient
  dbcache, Bitcoin ABC will now return an error at startup.
• The -maxavalancheoutbound option now takes precedence over the
  -maxconnections option.

RPC

The verifychain RPC will now return false if the checks didn't fail,
but couldn't be completed at the desired depth and level. This could be due
to missing data while pruning, due to an insufficient dbcache, or due to
the node being shutdown before the call could finish.

0.28.4

Bitcoin ABC 0.28.4 Release Notes

Bitcoin ABC version 0.28.4 is now available from:

https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.28.4/

This release includes the following features and fixes:

• The avalanche peers are now dumped to a file upon node shutdown and reloaded
  upon startup to allow for faster avalanche bootstraping. This feature can be
  disabled by using the -persistavapeers=0 option.
• bitcoin-seeder was not working properly since version 0.28.2 and has been
  fixed. While crawling for peers appropriately, it would have fail to mark any
  peer as good due to a bug.

0.28.3

Bitcoin ABC 0.28.3 Release Notes

Bitcoin ABC version 0.28.3 is now available from:

https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.28.3/

This release includes the following features:

• Add 2 new RPCs, invalidateavalancheproof and reconsideravalancheproof to
  manually change the acceptation status of an avalanche proof.
• Add a checkpoint after the November 15th, 2023 eCash network upgrade.

0.28.2

Bitcoin ABC 0.28.2 Release Notes

Bitcoin ABC version 0.28.2 is now available from:

https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.28.2/

This is a hotfix release to patch a bug that has been introduced in the previous
version and could cause the finalization status of an avalanche proof to be
lost by the node under some conditions.

All the nodes operators are required to update to this version before the
November 15th 2023 eCash network upgrade.

0.28.1

Bitcoin ABC 0.28.1 Release Notes

Bitcoin ABC version 0.28.1 is now available from:

https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.28.1/

This release includes the following features and fixes:

• New getstakingreward and setstakingreward RPCs have been added to
  retrieve and manually set the staking reward payout for a given block.
• The getremoteproofs RPC has been added to get the proof set gathered from
  other avalanche peers.
• The avalanche proofs retrieval has been enhanced to make the node more
  resilient to peer disconnects.

0.28.0

Bitcoin ABC 0.28.0 Release Notes

Bitcoin ABC version 0.28.0 is now available from:

https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.28.0/

Network upgrade

At the MTP time of 1700049600 (November 15, 2023 12:00:00 UTC), the following
changes will become activated:

• The miner fund ratio is increased to 32% of the coinbase reward.
• The staking reward output is added to the coinbase transaction. It sends 10%
  of the block reward to a payout address selected from the avalanche network.
  Blocks that don't include or have an incorrect output will be rejected by the
  avalanche network.
• Bump automatic replay protection to the next upgrade, timestamp 1715774400
  (May 15, 2024 12:00:00 UTC).

0.27.15

Bitcoin ABC 0.27.15 Release Notes

Bitcoin ABC version 0.27.15 is now available from:

https://download.bitcoinabc.org/0.27.15/

This release includes the following features and fixes:

• The getavalancheinfo RPC has an improved local.verification_status field
  that better explains why a proof is not verified. As a consequence the
  local.sharing field is no longer needed and has been deprecated. You can
  set the -deprecatedrpc=getavalancheinfo_sharing option to keep using it.
• The net logging category has been split in 2 categories to reduce verbosity
  when logging the net messages. To get the same log as previous versions,
  please use both -debug=net and -debug=netdebug.