71 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
71 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
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Bitcoin version 0.4.0 is now available for download at:
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http://sourceforge.net/projects/bitcoin/files/Bitcoin/bitcoin-0.4.0/
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The main feature in this release is wallet private key encryption;
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you can set a passphrase that must be entered before sending coins.
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See below for more information; if you decide to encrypt your wallet,
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WRITE DOWN YOUR PASSPHRASE AND PUT IT IN A SECURE LOCATION. If you
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forget or lose your wallet passphrase, you lose your bitcoins.
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Previous versions of bitcoin are unable to read encrypted wallets,
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and will crash on startup if the wallet is encrypted.
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Also note: bitcoin version 0.4 uses a newer version of Berkeley DB
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(bdb version 4.8) than previous versions (bdb 4.7). If you upgrade
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to version 0.4 and then revert back to an earlier version of bitcoin
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the it may be unable to start because bdb 4.7 cannot read bdb 4.8
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"log" files.
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Notable bug fixes from version 0.3.24:
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Fix several bitcoin-becomes-unresponsive bugs due to multithreading
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deadlocks.
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Optimize database writes for large (lots of inputs) transactions
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(fixes a potential denial-of-service attack)
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Wallet Encryption
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Bitcoin supports native wallet encryption so that people who steal your
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wallet file don't automatically get access to all of your Bitcoins.
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In order to enable this feature, choose "Encrypt Wallet" from the
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Options menu. You will be prompted to enter a passphrase, which
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will be used as the key to encrypt your wallet and will be needed
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every time you wish to send Bitcoins. If you lose this passphrase,
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you will lose access to spend all of the bitcoins in your wallet,
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no one, not even the Bitcoin developers can recover your Bitcoins.
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This means you are responsible for your own security, store your
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passphrase in a secure location and do not forget it.
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Remember that the encryption built into bitcoin only encrypts the
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actual keys which are required to send your bitcoins, not the full
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wallet. This means that someone who steals your wallet file will
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be able to see all the addresses which belong to you, as well as the
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relevant transactions, you are only protected from someone spending
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your coins.
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It is recommended that you backup your wallet file before you
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encrypt your wallet. To do this, close the Bitcoin client and
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copy the wallet.dat file from ~/.bitcoin/ on Linux, /Users/(user
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name)/Application Support/Bitcoin/ on Mac OSX, and %APPDATA%/Bitcoin/
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on Windows (that is /Users/(user name)/AppData/Roaming/Bitcoin on
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Windows Vista and 7 and /Documents and Settings/(user name)/Application
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Data/Bitcoin on Windows XP). Once you have copied that file to a
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safe location, reopen the Bitcoin client and Encrypt your wallet.
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If everything goes fine, delete the backup and enjoy your encrypted
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wallet. Note that once you encrypt your wallet, you will never be
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able to go back to a version of the Bitcoin client older than 0.4.
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Keep in mind that you are always responsible for your own security.
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All it takes is a slightly more advanced wallet-stealing trojan which
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installs a keylogger to steal your wallet passphrase as you enter it
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in addition to your wallet file and you have lost all your Bitcoins.
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Wallet encryption cannot keep you safe if you do not practice
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good security, such as running up-to-date antivirus software, only
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entering your wallet passphrase in the Bitcoin client and using the
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same passphrase only as your wallet passphrase.
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See the doc/README file in the bitcoin source for technical details
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of wallet encryption.
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