This article provides an extended description of changes made to Bytecoin Software in v3.4.2-beta-20190411, v3.4.2-beta-20190412 and v3.4.2.
v3.4.2-beta-20190411 (Amethyst)
Fixed problem when bytecoind stops responding via JSON RPC API. API is a crucial element of Bytecoin software, so finding and fixing possible bugs in it is a top priority for the Bytecoin devs;
Tweaked random output distribution for mixins. Outputs can be considered the “coins” of the blockchain - basically, they are unique pieces of information that describe how much value they hold and they can be attributed to any blockchain user. Since Bytecoin mixes different outputs into a transaction to obscure which one is being spent, distribution of these outputs is crucial to a spender’s anonymity. The mechanism for providing this distribution is constantly being studied and improved upon by the devs;
The walletd daemon now better utilizes CPU during sync (cores use 100%, if available). Contrary to popular opinion, blockchain sync is an intensive process not only in terms of network, but computations as well. The software has to verify the integrity and correctness of received information as well as perform cryptographic operations to determine whether any funds in the blockchain belong to a user. Now these operations utilize up to 100% of CPU.
During mining, the bytecoind daemon now prefers blocks received via submit_block API to other blocks, like the ones received via P2P, if difficulty parameters are equal. This will slightly increase mining profitability for lucky miners.
Brought back create_transaction optimization for large wallets which was accidentally removed in version 3.4.1. Sometimes this happens, but all's well that ends well.
Transaction fields prefix_hash and inputs_hash are now correctly set in various bytecoind API calls, if need_redundant_data is set. This option makes API more convenient to use.
Trezor and Ledger intermediate support added to walletd. Trezor and Ledger firmware unveiled in previous releases can now properly communicate with the Bytecoin daemon.
Several more bug fixes:
Fixed bug when transaction size is 0 in all walletd API calls.
Fixed bug when transaction timestamp is 0 in get_transaction of bytecoind API call for transaction, if it has already been included in the blockchain.
Improved command line processing in walletd, especially if wrong combination of options specified.
v3.4.2-beta-20190412 (Amethyst)
Fixed a stagenet voting bug. As one can imagine, this fix came just in time.
v3.4.2 (Amethyst)
Fixed merge mining related bug affecting version 4 blocks (Amethyst). All miners not upgraded to 3.4.2 at the moment of the consensus update will produce invalid blocks. This is a consequence of the hardfork. Merge mining is when a miner performs the same computational work for finding a block in several blockchains at the same time, multiplying their revenue. Now miners would be able to utilize merge mining more effectively.
More bug fixes:
Fixed crash when disconnecting Ledger while scanning the blockchain.
Fixed behavior of the get_transfers method when transactions from a memory pool are wrongly returned for some from_height and to_height values.
We encourage all users, integrators and miners to update to 3.4.2 to take advantage of the latest fixes and additions. Integrators are welcome to examine the freshly updated documentation.
- The Bytecoin Team