Bitcoin Core 32.0 Arrives October 10: How to Check Whether Your Node Falls Out of Maintenance

The first release candidate for Bitcoin Core 32.0 has been available since September 14, 2026. For you as the operator of your own node that means two things: the feature set of the coming major version is settled, and when it ships the 29 series drops out of the project's maintenance window. Anyone still running 29.x today will get no more security fixes after the planned date of October 10. The check takes two minutes; the update costs half an hour depending on your setup.

Our own count of reachable nodes worldwide, which we carried out for this article on the morning of September 15, shows how large the affected group is: roughly six in ten reachable Bitcoin nodes run a version that will no longer be a maintained one once 32.0 appears. The figures and the method are further down.

Bitcoin Core 32.0: what happened on September 14

Bitcoin Core is the reference software of the Bitcoin network. It checks blocks and transactions against the consensus rules, keeps its own copy of the blockchain and is therefore the foundation for anyone who does not leave their payments to somebody else's infrastructure. By its own schedule, the project publishes a major version roughly every six months.

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