Bitcoin Core 22.0 with Taproot support was released
A new version of the popular Bitcoin Core client (v 22.0) has been released. It features support for the upcoming major Taproot update, which is scheduled for November 2021.
The client was worked on for about eight months, with about 100 people contributing to the new software. For the first time, the developers decided to drop the zero at the beginning of the version name (22.0, not 0.22.0 according to the old template).
Implementation of Taproot support
The Bitcoin Core 0.21.1 release already included activation logic for Taproot. Bitcoin Core 22.0 is the first major release with support for the update itself, which is considered the largest since Segregated Witness was activated in 2017.
It is clear that Bitcoin Core 22.0 will perform full validation of the new Taproot rules. Since the activation of the update in November, all Taproot transactions will be validated against the protocol's new rules, said journalist Aaron van Wirdum.
I2P support.
To hide IP addresses when connecting nodes, Bitcoin Core users could previously use the Tor network. Now they have an alternative solution to protect their privacy.
The Invisible Internet Project (I2P) is a decentralized peer-to-peer network. It is an overlay, stable (disconnection of a node will not affect the functioning of the network) and anonymous. Encryption is used to transfer data between nodes in the network.
Improved support for hardware wallets
Back in version 0.18.0, released several years ago, Bitcoin Core implemented support for hardware wallets. However, it was implemented through the command line interface.
Since version 0.20.0, a graphical user interface (GUI) became available, but users had to perform some additional command line actions when signing transactions.
Bitcoin Core 22.0 is the first release of the popular client with full GUI support for hardware wallets. Users can now easily link the software to devices from Ledger, Trezor, BitBox, KeepKey and Coldcard.
As a reminder, the previous release of Bitcoin Core (v 0.21.0) took place in January 2021. It added support for Tor Network V3 addresses, descriptor wallets, bug fixes and performance improvements.