THE NEXT VERSION OF BITCOIN CORE 0.18.0 IS LAUNCHED
On May 2nd, the developers published the next version of the Bitcoin Core full-client 0.18.0.
As expected, now full bitcoin nodes running on the new version of Bitcoin Core will be able to interact with hardware wallets, including Ledger, Trezor, Digital BitBox, KeepKey or Coldcard through the Hardware Wallet Interaction (HWI) tool. This solution will allow users to achieve a higher level of security. To use this function is still possible only through the command line, but the developers have promised that over time will make this solution available to all users, including those who do not have specialized knowledge.
Also in the new version of the client, a command-line tool called bitcoin-wallet has appeared, with which you can create a new wallet file without resorting to the remote procedure call function, and view basic information about the existing wallet: encryption status, use of a passphrase, the number of transactions, etc.
Subsequently, users can combine several wallets created by them and manage them through a graphical interface (GUI). This feature, called multi-wallet, will be improved with subsequent updates as problems still remain when using the GUI to access multi-wallet. For example, you cannot use the multi-wallet coin control feature.
Also, some interface elements were changed, for example, in the outgoing transaction tab, the checkbox was removed, which forced the user to pay the commission amount not lower than the set threshold. In the new version of the client, the user can reduce the size of the commission up to the minimum for the transfer of the transaction to the network.
In particular, a number of commands for remote procedure calls, intended primarily for developers, were added and updated, protection against errors for miners was added and other minor flaws were eliminated.
The previous large-scale release of Bitcoin Core version 0.17.0 took place in October last year.
