Bitcoin software ushers in version 0.13.2 update, and 0.14.0 is expected to be released in March

On the day of Bitcoin’s 8th anniversary, the Bitcoin software received a new update.

While all eyes were on the rapidly rising price of Bitcoin (currently trading above $1,245, a new all-time high), the Bitcoin Core team of volunteer developers quietly released version 0.13.2 of the Bitcoin software.

This update may not be as large as the previous 0.13.0 release, but it brings a lot of bug and performance fixes, including an upgrade that allows the built-in wallet to react more reasonably to mempool changes . Other improvements include increasing the speed of network block delivery and some changes designed to make it easier for miners to adopt Segregated Witness (SegWit) .

Major Bitcoin update releases generally add some new features, while minor releases are usually just polish for the major releases, such as making the software more powerful by making bug and performance fixes.

In this latest release, 22 contributors made 55 changes.

To successfully upgrade (which developers recommend users do, as the update improves performance), users need to shut down their full nodes, install the latest version of the bitcoin software, and then restart. While not everyone is willing to upgrade to the latest version of the software, about 53% of nodes are currently running version 0.13.0.

Segregated Witness Activation

Meanwhile, the last time a version of the bitcoin software was released was not ideal.

Although the update with the Segregated Witness activation code was released as early as October last year, only about 25% of miners have signaled support for the change, far below the 95% required to activate SegWit.

However, despite the slow progress, this update also shows that developers are continuing to update the SegWit code.

According to the development roadmap, Bitcoin Core is currently continuing to work on the next major version 0.14.0, which may be released as early as March 2017.

Overall, in 2017, protocol developers appear to be focusing on privacy and scalability improvements.