Bitcoin Core enters final testing phase for version 32.0

Bitcoin Core has entered the final testing phase with the release of the first candidate for version 32.0 on September 14. Developers aim to launch the official version by October 10. While the update does not change the network's consensus rules, it introduces significant technical changes to the RPC interface and transaction handling.

A primary change is the adoption of the PSBTv2 format for four RPC commands used to create partially signed transactions. Because PSBTv2 is not backward compatible with PSBTv0, wallet providers and service operators must test for compatibility to avoid transaction processing issues.

Other notable updates include a dual fee estimation system that compares block policy and mempool estimators to provide more accurate transaction costs. The software also improves performance by using eight threads by default for database transaction lookups during block verification. Additionally, developers addressed a security vulnerability involving wallet naming on non-Windows systems and replaced the HTTP server. An audit using Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 model helped identify and resolve a memory exhaustion issue in the new server before the stable release.