Bitcoin Core 24.1 has been officially released, with new features and bug fixes that were eagerly anticipated by cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
The new version of Bitcoin Core, a Bitcoin full node software, was announced on April 12th and includes a wide range of enhancements. Developers and users alike are excited about the updates. Read on to find out what Bitcoin Core 24.1 has to offer.

1. Bitcoin Core 24.1 Release: What’s New?

The most recent Bitcoin Core 24.1 release has some major improvements for users. The upgrade comes with some important bug fixes, security enhancements and features.

Bug fixes and Security Enhancements: These include resolving issues that affected the protocol rules and prevented some valid transactions from getting processed. The release also includes some patches to improve the overall security of the blockchain.

Features: Numerous features have been added that bring improvements to the user experience. These include:

A new address schema that improves the legibility of various Bitcoin URL’s, making it easier for users to identify them.
A new lightning channel opens & closes user interface in the Graphical User Interface (GUI).
Improvements to wallet transaction history.
A number of bug fixes related to the wallet database.

The new release includes various other improvements and bug fixes, making Bitcoin Core 24.1 a significant improvement from its predecessors.

2. Improved Security and Performance Features of Bitcoin Core 24.1

Bitcoin Core 24.1 provides significant improvements over its predecessor in terms of security and performance. The following features help protect against data loss and improve performance.

Pruning: Pruning helps to reduce the disk size footprint of the wallet by cutting off parts of the blockchain that are unneeded, thus improving blockchain synchronization speed.
Improved Verification Speed: Verification speed is improved by using linearly scaling the verification cost with the rate of block production.
Counting Bloom Filter: This feature provides privacy-preserving optimizations that make it simpler to detect changes to the UTXO set.

Furthermore, Tor Network Support is added to the Bitcoin Core 24.1 release making it easier for users to connect to hidden services on the Tor network. This ensures the connection is secure and that it remains anonymous. A new privacy feature, descripter index has also been added during this release. This ensures the descriptors for all UTXO spent will remain inaccessible.

3. Benefits of Upgrading to Bitcoin Core 24.1

Performance Improvemements:
Bitcoin Core 24.1 offers significant improvements in performance over its predecessor. It includes a revised block propagation system, which makes use of Compact Blocks, and reduces the amount of data that must be transmitted when new blocks are broadcast. This can improve block relay performance by up to ~25%.

Transaction Cost Reduction:
Bitcoin Core 24.1 also helps to reduce the cost of sending Bitcoin transactions. This is due to a new feature which optimizes the use of ‘Change’ outputs when sending a transaction. This can reduce the total transaction fee by up to ~25%. In addition, the fee estimation algorithm has been improved, allowing for more accurate fee estimates.

Revised block propagation system
Compact Blocks
Optimised use of “Change” outputs
Improved fee estimation algorithm

The Bitcoin Core development team has released version 24.1 of its software, bringing with it a number of new features and improvements to the world’s most popular digital currency. The team has been swiftly rolling out updates in its effort to provide steady and reliable performance for its users. This latest release is testament to the growth and resilience of Bitcoin over the years and sets the stage for more innovation in the future.