-If you are using Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind version 0.7.2 or earlier, you must take action -before 15 May, 2013. If you do nothing, you are likely to be left behind and -will be out of sync with the rest of the Bitcoin network. +If you are using an old version of Bitcoin-Qt (or bitcoind, the server bitcoin software), +you must either upgrade to version 0.8.0 or later before May 15, 2013, +upgrade to an up-to-date "backport" release, +or modify a file and +restart bitcoin to work around a bug with the old software. +
+This bug does not affect any bitcoins you already have, but if you do nothing you will +be out of sync with the rest of the Bitcoin network and will be unable to receive +bitcoins (payments sent to you will look like they never get confirmed, or will be confirmed +very slowly). You also risk being the victim of a "double-spend" attack, where somebody sends +you bitcoins that the rest of the network would reject as invalid.
We recommend that you @@ -16,16 +24,21 @@ We recommend that you before the 15th of May to avoid any issues. If you are a solo miner or mining pool operator, please see the the notes at the end of this page for how to upgrade safely.
--If you cannot upgrade to the latest version, you can still avoid the problem. +If you cannot upgrade to the latest version, +backports to older branches are now in final testing. +These include not only compatibility for the 15 May changes, but also fixes for known vulnerabilities and bugs, which have already been included and tested in the latest release. +
++If you cannot upgrade to any of the above, you can still avoid the problem. Create a file called DB_CONFIG in the bitcoin data directory, containing these two lines:
-set_lg_dir database -set_lk_max_locks 120000 +set_lk_max_locks 537000
@@ -40,7 +53,8 @@ re-indexing operation; you must wait for the reindex to complete before serving work to miners.
-And if you are creating blocks and cannot upgrade to version 0.8.1 for some +And if you are creating blocks and cannot upgrade to version 0.8.1 or a +backport for some reason, you should not set_lk_max_locks in a DB_CONFIG file until May 15th; if you increase locks before then you run the risk of creating or building on blocks incompatible with the rest of the network. @@ -54,7 +68,7 @@ still running old versions of Bitcoin-Qt/bitcoind. Therefore, the only option is require everybody to either upgrade or workaround the bug.