Bitcoin Core 0.9.3 rc1 is available for download

Bitcoin Core version 0.9.3rc1 is now available from:

  https://bitcoin.org/bin/0.9.3/test/

This is a release candidate (test version) for a new minor version release, bringing only bug fixes and updated translations.

Please report bugs using the issue tracker at github:

  https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues

Upgrading and downgrading ==========================

How to Upgrade --------------

If you are running an older version, shut it down. Wait until it has completely shut down (which might take a few minutes for older versions), then run the installer (on Windows) or just copy over /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt (on Mac) or bitcoind/bitcoin-qt (on Linux).

If you are upgrading from version 0.7.2 or earlier, the first time you run 0.9.3 your blockchain files will be re-indexed, which will take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on the speed of your machine.

Downgrading warnings --------------------

The 'chainstate' for this release is not always compatible with previous releases, so if you run 0.9.x and then decide to switch back to a 0.8.x release you might get a blockchain validation error when starting the old release (due to 'pruned outputs' being omitted from the index of unspent transaction outputs).

Running the old release with the -reindex option will rebuild the chainstate data structures and correct the problem.

Also, the first time you run a 0.8.x release on a 0.9 wallet it will rescan the blockchain for missing spent coins, which will take a long time (tens of minutes on a typical machine).

0.9.3 Release notes =======================

RPC: - Avoid a segfault on getblock if it can't read a block from disk - Add paranoid return value checks in base58

Protocol and network code: - Don't poll showmyip.com, it doesn't exist anymore - Add a way to limit deserialized string lengths and use it - Add a new checkpoint at block 295,000 - Increase IsStandard() scriptSig length - Avoid querying DNS seeds, if we have open connections

Wallet: - Check redeemScript size does not exceed 520 byte limit - Ignore (and warn about) too-long redeemScripts while loading wallet

GUI: - fix 'opens in testnet mode when presented with a BIP-72 link with no fallback' - AvailableCoins: acquire cs_main mutex - Fix unicode character display on MacOSX

Miscellaneous: - key.cpp: fail with a friendlier message on missing ssl EC support - Remove bignum dependency for scripts - Upgrade OpenSSL to 1.0.1i (see https://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20140806.txt - just to be sure, no critical issues for Bitcoin Core) - Upgrade miniupnpc to 1.9.20140701 - Fix boost detection in build system on some platforms

Credits --------

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release:

- Andrew Poelstra
- Cory Fields
- Jeff Garzik
- Johnathan Corgan
- Julian Haight
- Michael Ford
- Pavel Vasin
- Peter Todd
- Pieter Wuille
- Rose Toomey
- Ruben Dario Ponticelli
- Trevin Hofmann
- Wladimir J. van der Laan
- Zak Wilcox

As well as everyone that helped translating on [Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/bitcoin/).