Bitcoin Core 32 Enters Release‑Candidate Phase Ahead of Planned October 10 Launch

Bitcoin Core version 32.0 entered release‑candidate testing on September 14, following an August feature freeze. The release‑candidate (v32.0rc1) is now available for community testing, with developers aiming for a stable release around October 10, though the date remains a target rather than a guarantee.

Key Development Milestones

• August 6 – Soft freeze on translation changes.
• August 20 – Feature freeze; only bug fixes accepted thereafter.
• September 14 – Branch split from main codebase; release‑candidate cycle begins.
• Parallel database reads introduced to speed up block validation.
• Four wallet commands now default to PSBT version 2.
• Security patches address unsafe custom wallet names and excessive memory use from unauthenticated HTTP requests.

Performance Improvements

The new parallel‑read capability allows the node to fetch database entries concurrently during block validation, reducing overall validation time without affecting Bitcoin’s 10‑minute block interval. This change modifies node processing only and does not introduce any new consensus rules or require a soft fork.

Wallet Enhancements

Four wallet‑related commands will create partially signed Bitcoin transactions (PSBT) using version 2 by default. The older PSBT format remains supported to preserve compatibility with existing wallets and services.

Security Fixes

Two notable patches are included:

• Correction of a vulnerability where specially crafted wallet names could trigger unsafe command execution on non‑Windows systems.
• Mitigation of memory growth caused by unauthenticated HTTP activity, reducing memory usage from several gigabytes to a few megabytes in test scenarios.

Release Outlook

Release candidates give node operators, wallet developers, and other users time to identify bugs across diverse hardware and software environments. Any issues uncovered may lead to additional candidate releases and could shift the final release date beyond the October 10 target.