Bitcoin Core version 0.12.1 is now available from:

  <https://bitcoin.org/bin/bitcoin-core-0.12.1/>

This is a new major version release, bringing new features and other improvements.

Please report bugs using the issue tracker at github:

  <https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues>

Upgrading and downgrading
=========================

How to Upgrade
--------------

If you are running an older version, shut it down. Wait until it has completely
shut down (which might take a few minutes for older versions), then run the
installer (on Windows) or just copy over /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt (on Mac) or
bitcoind/bitcoin-qt (on Linux).

Downgrade warning
-----------------

### Downgrade to a version < 0.12.0

Because release 0.12.0 and later will obfuscate the chainstate on every
fresh sync or reindex, the chainstate is not backwards-compatible with
pre-0.12 versions of Bitcoin Core or other software.

If you want to downgrade after you have done a reindex with 0.12.0 or later,
you will need to reindex when you first start Bitcoin Core version 0.11 or
earlier.

Notable changes
===============

The p2p alert system is off by default. To turn on, use `-alert` with startup configuration.

0.12.1 Change log
=================

Detailed release notes follow. This overview includes changes that affect
behavior, not code moves, refactors and string updates. For convenience in locating
the code changes and accompanying discussion, both the pull request and
git merge commit are mentioned.

### RPC and REST

### Configuration and command-line options

### Block and transaction handling

### P2P protocol and network code

### Validation

### Build system

### Wallet

### GUI

### Tests and QA

### Miscellaneous

Credits
=======

Thanks to everyone who directly contributed to this release:


As well as everyone that helped translating on [Transifex](https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/bitcoin/).