Release process

Bitcoin Core Open Source Release Process

Releases to the Bitcoin Core client and project are built and released using this process:

• Labeled in github
• Binaries are created for the platforms affected (usually all, Windows, Mac and Linux).
• Binary file checksum(s) is(are) calculated and a message with those are signed by a core developer.
  • sha256 checksum
• Files used to build are checksummed and submitted to the Gitian.sigs project on github.
• Uploaded to distribution (Bitcoin.org/bin, and Launchpad.net for the Ubuntu PPA)
• Blog post on Bitcoin.org
• Forum post (sticky) on BitcoinTalk.org

Verifying The Download

To verify the checksum for a binary download, first ensure the checksum file is secure by decrypting the SHA256SUMS.asc file:

$ gpg --decrypt SHA256SUMS.asc

Then verify the file checksum:

$ openssl dgst -sha256 [binary release archive]

Verify that the checksum matches the one in SHA256SUMS.asc

A script to verify the binaries was contributed to the Bitcoin.org project.

External Links

• Bitcoin Core Release Process on Github
• Bitcoin Core project source on Github
• Gitain.sigs Trusted build process signatures on Github
• Bitcoin.org website with releases

See Also

• Development process
• Original Bitcoin client
• Open source