Bitcoin Core 32.0 Heads to Final Testing With Fee Update
The release candidate brings a new fee estimator, faster block processing, and a security fix for the REST interface. Bitcoin Core does not change consensus rules, but it does change node infrastructure.
Key Takeaways
- Bitcoin Core 32.0 is in its final testing phase and does not add any new consensus rules.
- The update improves fee estimation, block processing, and wallet features.
- A security flaw in the new web server was fixed before the stable release.
Bitcoin Core 32.0 has entered its final testing phase with changes to fee estimation, block processing, and wallet features. The software that powers many Bitcoin nodes does not add any new consensus rules, but it does include changes that noticeably affect how nodes are used and how secure they are.
New Fee Estimation
The first release candidate was tagged on September 14. The developers are aiming for a final release on October 10. Bitcoin Core lets nodes independently verify transactions and blocks according to Bitcoin's rules, so version 32 does not change those rules.
The biggest change is in how the software estimates transaction fees. Until now, Bitcoin Core mainly looked at fees from transactions that had already been included in earlier blocks. Version 32 adds a second estimator that also looks at transactions still waiting for confirmation.
The software then compares both results and can suggest a lower fee when current network pressure allows it. According to the draft release notes, that can help fee estimates drop faster once pressure on the network eases.
Faster Processing on Nodes
There are also changes to block processing. Nodes can now fetch transaction data from their database using multiple processing threads at the same time while blocks are being verified. Bitcoin Core uses eight threads by default for this, which should help especially when a node is behind and has a lot of data to read from disk.
The update also includes a new web server for requests from other apps that talk to a node. An audit found a problem there where the server kept accepting data while an earlier request was still being processed. That could cause memory usage to spike quickly. That issue has now been fixed before version 32 appears in a stable release.
The test results also showed that this affected the REST interface, which can be used without login credentials. In one test, a node's memory usage with 16 unsecured connections rose from 46 MB to almost 3 GB in about a minute. After the fix, that stayed around 3 MB in a 90-second test.
Why This Matters
For Bitcoin users and node operators in Europe, this matters mainly because Bitcoin Core is the foundation for a lot of infrastructure around the network. Better fee estimation can make wallets and services more practical to use, while the security fix shows how important it is to keep node software up to date.
The release also comes at a time when, according to the project info, a large share of reachable Bitcoin nodes is still running outdated versions. That makes moving to a new version not just a technical update, but also a matter of maintenance and security for the broader Bitcoin infrastructure.
