Top 10 things to Know about Major Release of Bitcoin Core 0.18.0

Major release of Bitcoin Core 0.18.0 was out on 2nd May 2019. We compiled a list of top 10 notable changes in the latest major release of Bitcoin Core0.18.0.

This release was delivered in a span of six months by 250 plus contributors.

1. Bitcoin core is supports operating systems using the Linux kernel, macOS 10.10+, and Windows 7. Older version of OS X before 10.10 does not support starting Bitcoin core 0.17.0
2. Upgrading the Bitcoin Core requires converting the chainstate database to a new format. The conversion process might take from a few minutes to half an hour. However, automatic database upgrade is not supported from Bitcoin Core version 0.8 to version 0.15.0 or later
3. Linux systemd init file will start using /var/lib/bitcoind directory on the system instead of ~bitcoin/.bitcoin directory. The datadir setting /etc/bitcoin/bitcoin.conf will not take any effect.
4. Bitcoin Core used to ban the IP addresses of misbehaving peers for a period of 1 day by default. Now misbehaving nodes are automatically disconnected by peers if they have unused incoming connection slots.
5. Encrypted wallets are now unloaded and reloaded without any need to restart the software.
6. Hardware Wallet Interaction (HWI) scripts now allow the use of command-line with hardware key management devices. Some of the popular hardware wallets are Ledger and Trezor etc. Hardware wallets bring an extra level of security as the user's private keys do not move out of a hardware wallet device.
7. Security - Bitcoin Core is no longer dependent on OpenSSL. This helps Bitcoin core free from any OpenSSL specific security issues. Bitcoin Core was previously exposed to libssl vulnerabilities. This release introduces build time --disable-bip70 option to circumvent support for BIP70 payment protocol or from linking libssl.
8. This release recommends not to use coin control features with multiple wallets loaded.
9. For Miners, calling getblocktemplate without the segwit rule set will result in displaying an error message describing how to enable the segwit rule.
10. The release announcement noted that its upcoming Bitcoin Core 0.20 will default to native segwit addresses (bech32). This change expected to bring additional fee savings.