Crypto16 September, 20262 min read
Bitcoin Core 32.0 Enters Final Release-Candidate Testing Ahead of Oct. 10 Release
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Bitcoin Core 32.0 RC1 tagged Sept. 14, final release targeted Oct. 10. Final testing brings faster block validation and updated fee estimation.
Release candidate window opens
Bitcoin Core 32.0 entered its final release-candidate testing cycle after developers tagged v32.0rc1 on Sept. 14, with a planned Oct. 10 release still targeted in the project’s release schedule.
CoinDesk said the first release candidate was tagged on Sept. 14 and that developers aim to release the finished version on Oct. 10, while also noting that Version 32 does not change Bitcoin’s rules for checking transactions and blocks.
Crypto News said the release schedule targets Oct. 10 for the final v32.0 tag, and that the update focuses on node software behavior, wallet interfaces, fee calculation, networking and performance.
The Crypto News brief also said the draft release notes do not list a change to Bitcoin’s consensus rules, meaning the update does not redefine which transactions or blocks the network considers valid.
Fees and validation get faster
Bitcoin Core 32 changes how nodes estimate transaction fees by adding a second estimator that looks at transactions currently waiting to be confirmed in the node’s mempool, alongside the existing block-history approach. Crypto News said the new fee estimation combines block history with current mempool conditions and may recommend lower fees, while CoinDesk described the software comparing the two and recommending the lower fee when current network conditions support it.
For block processing, Crypto News said Bitcoin Core 32 now prefetches previous outputs, known as prevouts, from the chainstate database across eight worker threads by default, reducing time spent waiting for disk reads. CoinDesk similarly said nodes can fetch transaction data from their databases using several processing threads at once while checking blocks, with Bitcoin Core using eight of those threads by default.
Wallet and server security fixes
Bitcoin Core 32 also includes security fixes, including a wallet notification flaw on non-Windows systems where an authenticated user with permission to create wallets could, under certain conditions, cause commands to run on the computer hosting the node. CoinDesk said the attack required the operator to have enabled walletnotify, and that Bitcoin Core 32 treats wallet names as literal text instead of allowing parts of the name to be interpreted as commands.
The update further replaces Bitcoin Core’s existing web server, and Crypto News said testing found sixteen unauthenticated REST connections could drive memory use to roughly three gigabytes quickly. CoinDesk added that testing showed the memory-exhaustion issue extended to Bitcoin Core’s REST interface, with sixteen unauthenticated REST connections taking one test node from 46 MB of memory to about 3 GB in roughly a minute.