Bitcoin Core 0.20 guide covering BIP61 removal, bech32 defaults, PSBT changes, RPC whitelists, asmap, platform requirements, known build issues and rollback.
This guide explains Bitcoin Core 0.20.0 release in plain English. It summarises the important changes, who they affect and what should be checked before an upgrade.
Bitcoin Core 0.20.0 release: Inventory dependencies, verify binaries, back up wallets and configuration, capture peers and balances, test on a representative copy, then validate RPC parsers, address type, PSBT, fee creation, peer mapping, GUI and clean rollback.
A node operator is checking Bitcoin Core 0.20.0 release. The release raised minimum macOS support to 10.12 and required glibc 2.17 for distributed Linux binaries.
The release raised minimum macOS support to 10.12 and required glibc 2.17 for distributed Linux binaries. Source tarballs had documented autogen and genbuild workarounds that must be recorded for reproducibility.
BIP61 reject support and enablebip61 were removed. Wallets must observe propagation and confirmation and use fee estimation or replacement rather than interpreting silence as acceptance.
RPC wallet addresses and change defaulted to bech32. Descriptor RPCs gained sortedmulti, PSBT calls included known BIP32 derivations by default and watch-only GUI flows copied PSBTs for external signing.
rpcwhitelist and rpcwhitelistdefault enabled per-user method restriction. Test positive and negative capability boundaries, because authentication alone should not grant every command.
Experimental asmap could map addresses to autonomous systems for peer bucketing; legacy /16 mapping remained default. A stale or wrong map could distort the intended diversity.
Fallback fees became disabled on all chains, bootstrap.dat required explicit loadblock, walletnotify gained a wallet-name substitution and several deprecated or removed fields required parser updates.
Inventory dependencies, verify binaries, back up wallets and configuration, capture peers and balances, test on a representative copy, then validate RPC parsers, address type, PSBT, fee creation, peer mapping, GUI and clean rollback. Build a revision-pinned evidence pack on an isolated node, wallet or protocol harness. Record source commit, binary hash, network, chain identity, configuration and dependencies.
Bitcoin Core 0.20.0 release: Inventory dependencies, verify binaries, back up wallets and configuration, capture peers and balances, test on a representative copy, then validate RPC parsers, address type, PSBT, fee creation, peer mapping, GUI and clean rollback.
The release raised minimum macOS support to 10.12 and required glibc 2.17 for distributed Linux binaries.
BIP61 reject support and enablebip61 were removed. Wallets must observe propagation and confirmation and use fee estimation or replacement rather than interpreting silence as acceptance.
RPC wallet addresses and change defaulted to bech32. Descriptor RPCs gained sortedmulti, PSBT calls included known BIP32 derivations by default and watch-only GUI flows copied PSBTs for external signing.
Bitcoin Core 0.20.0 changed several integration contracts and defaults without changing Bitcoin’s consensus rules. Safe adoption requires explicit parser, fee, wallet, permission and peer-selection tests.
Check the current specification status and the documentation for the exact implementation you operate before moving production funds or changing a mining node.
Bitcoin Core 0.20.2 guide to discouragement, wallet notifications, PSBT UTXO compatibility, Bech32m, source builds and rollback.
Bitcoin Core 0.21.2 guide to address-relay limits, scan progress, wallet access, includeconf parsing, build compatibility and upgrade tests.
Bitcoin Core 0.21.1 guide covering Taproot Speedy Trial parameters, enforcement boundary, miner signalling, Bech32m address handling, wallet limits and rollout.
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