Good morning,
Two new code changes were merged into Bitcoin Core over the past week.
In today’s newsletter, I discuss what those changes were, their significance, and how they tie into a larger development initiative spearheaded by Core’s Benchmarking working group.
As usual, I also share links to other core Bitcoin development topics and news from the past week.
Yours truly,
Christine D. Kim
⏱️Core Release Schedule
(For background on the Bitcoin software development process, refer to the Bitcoin Governance 101 document in the BTC Toolkit.)
First, a quick overview of Bitcoin Core’s software release schedule and the status of the next major release:
Latest Stable Major Release: Bitcoin Core 30.0*
Release Date: October 13, 2025
Latest Stable Minor Release: Bitcoin Core 30.2*
Release Date: January 13, 2026
Upcoming Major Release: Bitcoin Core 31.0
Target Release Date: April 10, 2026
Open issues: 12
Closed issues: 34
Milestone progress: 73%
The previous week’s snapshot showed 11 open issues, 33 closed, and a milestone progress of 75%.
*Warning: Bitcoin Core v30.0 and 30.1 contain a wallet migration bug that may result in a loss of funds. A fix for the bug has been included in v30.2. Out of an abundance of caution, users should only attempt wallet migrations using v30.2.
📧 You’ve Got Mail! (& Other News)
(Refer to the Bitcoin Development Meetings document in the BTC Toolkit for more information on Bitcoin development meetings and discussion forums.)
An overview of notable Bitcoin Core development discussions and news, sourced from Gnusha Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Logs, the Bitcoin Development Mailing List, and other public forums:
Last Thursday, Bitcoin Core developers gathered for their weekly IRC meeting. (Gnusha IRC Logs) The following is an overview of the pull requests (PRs), issues, and comments that were raised during the meeting and their respective statuses:
PR #31132 (validation, fetch block inputs on parallel threads 3x faster IBD): New benchmarking results.
PR #34253 (validation, cache tip recency for lock-free
IsInitialBlockDownload): Merged.PR #34207 (coins/refactor, enforce
GetCoinreturns only unspent coins): Merged.PR #34424 (CChain Concurrency Improvement): Request for comment.
PR #34374 (kernel, use structured logging and simplify logging interface): Work in progress.
PR #34257 (txgraph, deterministic optimal transaction order): Work in progress.
PR #34138 (Cluster mempool, more accurate cost model for SFL): Work in progress.
Announcement: The Bitcoin Core v31 feature freeze is 4 weeks out.
Testnet4, a Bitcoin public testnet launched in 2024, has been plagued by volatile block times and slow transaction confirmation times. Bitcoin developers are discussing a one-time mining difficulty reset at block height #151200 to regulate the testnet’s block production rate. (Bitcoin Development Mailing List)
Bitcoin developers are discussing Falcon, a post-quantum digital signature system that could be a viable replacement for Bitcoin’s current signatures in the future. Falcon’s main appeal is that its signatures are much smaller and faster to verify than most other post-quantum options. However, some developers caution that implementing Falcon safely on Bitcoin may be challenging due to its complexity. (Bitcoin Development Mailing List)
☁️ That’s all for my round-up of Bitcoin Core development discussion and news. Continue reading for my insights and pointed takeaways on these updates. To read the rest of the newsletter, make sure you are signed up for a premium subscription:
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🔦 Discussion Spotlight
(For an overview of the key participants in the Bitcoin development process, refer to the Bitcoin Project Contributor Directory in the BTC Toolkit.)
Two new Bitcoin Core PRs were merged over the past week.
