<p>v22.1 is a minor release to backport bug fixes. The v22.x branch has now reached its “Maintenance End” and v22.1 will be last release on the v22.x branch unless there is a critical security issue discovered before the v25.0 release which spells the “End of Life” of the v22.x branch.</p>
<p>v24.0.1 is a major release and the first release of the v24.x branch. Unless you depend on specific behavior from the v22.0 branch (as described in <a href="https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/116388/5406">Vojtěch's excellent answer</a>), you should aim to run a maintained version, i.e. the latest release in the v23.x and v24.x release branches, which currently are v23.0 or v24.0.1.</p>
<p>Bitcoin Core aims to release a major version ever 6-7 months. Major releases may contain breaking changes and new features. The latest two major versions are maintained: bug fixes are backported from the development branch to those two release branches, leading to minor releases as needed. Minor releases generally only include bug fixes, no new features.</p>
<p>Bitcoin Core uses <a href="https://semver.org" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Semantic Versioning</a>: the first number in the version is incremented for major releases. The second number in the version name is incremented for minor releases. You can read more about the release schedule on <a href="https://bitcoincore.org/en/lifecycle/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Bitcoin Core's Software Life Cycle page</a>.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-16T19:32:20.550Z
2022-12-16T19:41:42.610Z
2022-12-16T19:41:42.610Z
Murch
<p>v22.1 is a minor release that ports some more recent bug fixes and other small improvements onto v22.0 without introducing any breaking changes from v23 and onward. If you're currently running v22.0 and depend on some behavior that has changed since then, and don't want to deal with the breaking change right now, you should update to v22.1. This is the only reason minor updates of past major releases exist, and if it doesn't apply to you, you should be fine with updating to v24.0.1.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>And which version has the consensus?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Every version of Bitcoin Core since v0.8.6 (released in December 2013) will be able to sync to the current chain<sup><a href="https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-core-performance-evolution/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">[1]</a></sup>. Additionally, every version since v0.21.1 will validate according to the latest consensus rules which have changed with the Taproot soft fork.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-15T14:55:47.200Z
You can read the [release notes](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/release-notes/release-notes-23.0.md) for v23.0. Some already deprecated functionality was removed, and some fields were moved from `getblockchaininfo` to `getdeploymentinfo`. It's nothing major, but still a breaking change for anyone relying on the previous behavior.
Vojtěch Strnad
CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-12-15T13:52:55.200Z
2022-12-15T13:52:55.200Z
Vojtěch Strnad
<p>I just received a notification from the Bitcoin Core dev team that there is a &quot;new&quot; version of Bitcoin Core 22.1 available from their <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases/tag/v22.1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">GitHub repo</a>, however <a href="https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases/tag/v24.0.1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">v24.0.1</a> was released just 3 days ago.</p>
<p>Presumably there is some reason they have two branches in development and release cycles?</p>
<p>Why?  And which version has the consensus?</p>

<bitcoin-core><bitcoin-core-development>
BitcoinCore 22.1? or 24.0.1?
Hannah Vernon
# BitcoinCore 22.1? or 24.0.1?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-12-15)

I just received a notification from the Bitcoin Core dev team that there is a "new" version of Bitcoin Core 22.1 available from their [GitHub repo](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases/tag/v22.1), however [v24.0.1](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/releases/tag/v24.0.1) was released just 3 days ago.

Presumably there is some reason they have two branches in development and release cycles?

Why? And which version has the consensus?

**Tags:** bitcoin-core, bitcoin-core-development


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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-12-15. Score: 4 | Accepted answer

v22.1 is a minor release that ports some more recent bug fixes and other small improvements onto v22.0 without introducing any breaking changes from v23 and onward. If you're currently running v22.0 and depend on some behavior that has changed since then, and don't want to deal with the breaking change right now, you should update to v22.1. This is the only reason minor updates of past major releases exist, and if it doesn't apply to you, you should be fine with updating to v24.0.1.

> And which version has the consensus?

Every version of Bitcoin Core since v0.8.6 (released in December 2013) will be able to sync to the current chain[[1]](https://blog.lopp.net/bitcoin-core-performance-evolution/). Additionally, every version since v0.21.1 will validate according to the latest consensus rules which have changed with the Taproot soft fork.

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: You can read the [release notes](https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/master/doc/release-notes/release-notes-23.0.md) for v23.0. Some already deprecated functionality was removed, and some fields were moved from `getblockchaininfo` to `getdeploymentinfo`. It's nothing major, but still a breaking change for anyone relying on the previous behavior.  

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### Answer by username_1 on 2022-12-16. Score: 1

v22.1 is a minor release to backport bug fixes. The v22.x branch has now reached its “Maintenance End” and v22.1 will be last release on the v22.x branch unless there is a critical security issue discovered before the v25.0 release which spells the “End of Life” of the v22.x branch.

v24.0.1 is a major release and the first release of the v24.x branch. Unless you depend on specific behavior from the v22.0 branch (as described in [username_2's excellent answer](https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/a/116388/5406)), you should aim to run a maintained version, i.e. the latest release in the v23.x and v24.x release branches, which currently are v23.0 or v24.0.1.

Bitcoin Core aims to release a major version ever 6-7 months. Major releases may contain breaking changes and new features. The latest two major versions are maintained: bug fixes are backported from the development branch to those two release branches, leading to minor releases as needed. Minor releases generally only include bug fixes, no new features.

Bitcoin Core uses [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org): the first number in the version is incremented for major releases. The second number in the version name is incremented for minor releases. You can read more about the release schedule on [Bitcoin Core's Software Life Cycle page](https://bitcoincore.org/en/lifecycle/).


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