【43.6% of Bitcoin nodes are running old, unmaintained versions. Bitcoin Core has changed its patching rules 😱⚡】
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The Bitcoin network has 8,422 publicly reachable nodes. Of those, 3,671 are running old versions that are no longer maintained. That’s 43.6%, according to a snapshot from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. These nodes won’t receive new patches. On October 22, Bitcoin Core changed its patching rules. 😱
The new rules are designed to speed up patching. Vulnerabilities deemed easy to rediscover through re-mining are triaged. Bitcoin Core now patches all maintained release branches at the same time. As soon as the patch is released, an announcement goes out. Developer Antoine Poinsot announced the change. 🔧
To see how slow the old process was, look at CVE-2024-52911. This was a high-severity vulnerability in block validation. It was fixed in version 29.0 in April 2025, but wasn’t publicly disclosed until May 5, 2026. About 388 days passed between the fix and public disclosure. 🧨
Bitcoin Core now supports only three release branches: 29.x, 30.x, and 31.x. All others are no longer maintained. Once 32.0 is released, 29.x will leave the maintenance window. Based on the same sample, 4,306 nodes will end up in the unmaintained zone. That’s 51.1%—higher than the current 43.6%. 📈
KIT counts only publicly reachable IPv4 and IPv6 nodes. Nodes using Tor or not listening on a port aren’t included. Nodes operated by exchanges and hosting providers aren’t included in the denominator either. Bitcoin has no central authority that can force upgrades. Whether to upgrade is entirely up to the operators. 🔍
In my view, the real variable is AI. The old rules depended on vulnerabilities being difficult to rediscover. Large language models undermine that assumption. The trade-off is less time to verify mitigations. 😅
📌 Bitcoin Core is shortening the patch disclosure period, while 43.6% of public nodes are still running old versions.
Is your $BTC held on an exchange, or do you run your own node?
#BitcoinCore32进入最终测试
Group chat: 🚀 加入X先生的粉丝群聊跟进行情
The Bitcoin network has 8,422 publicly reachable nodes. Of those, 3,671 are running old versions that are no longer maintained. That’s 43.6%, according to a snapshot from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. These nodes won’t receive new patches. On October 22, Bitcoin Core changed its patching rules. 😱
The new rules are designed to speed up patching. Vulnerabilities deemed easy to rediscover through re-mining are triaged. Bitcoin Core now patches all maintained release branches at the same time. As soon as the patch is released, an announcement goes out. Developer Antoine Poinsot announced the change. 🔧
To see how slow the old process was, look at CVE-2024-52911. This was a high-severity vulnerability in block validation. It was fixed in version 29.0 in April 2025, but wasn’t publicly disclosed until May 5, 2026. About 388 days passed between the fix and public disclosure. 🧨
Bitcoin Core now supports only three release branches: 29.x, 30.x, and 31.x. All others are no longer maintained. Once 32.0 is released, 29.x will leave the maintenance window. Based on the same sample, 4,306 nodes will end up in the unmaintained zone. That’s 51.1%—higher than the current 43.6%. 📈
KIT counts only publicly reachable IPv4 and IPv6 nodes. Nodes using Tor or not listening on a port aren’t included. Nodes operated by exchanges and hosting providers aren’t included in the denominator either. Bitcoin has no central authority that can force upgrades. Whether to upgrade is entirely up to the operators. 🔍
In my view, the real variable is AI. The old rules depended on vulnerabilities being difficult to rediscover. Large language models undermine that assumption. The trade-off is less time to verify mitigations. 😅
📌 Bitcoin Core is shortening the patch disclosure period, while 43.6% of public nodes are still running old versions.
Is your $BTC held on an exchange, or do you run your own node?
#BitcoinCore32进入最终测试
