Dogecoin Core version 1.14.8 has been officially released and is now available for download on GitHub. This minor version release brings several crucial improvements aimed at improving the stability, efficiency, and security of the Dogecoin network and is recommended for all users.

The update includes several important changes, most notably several fixes that were reverted from Bitcoin Core’s upstream. DOGE contributor junior developer (@chromatic_x) announced via X: “Dogecoin Core 1.14. 8 has been released. This minor release includes important network code updates. We strongly recommend all users to perform any platform updates soon.”

Why Dogecoin Core V1.14.8 is Important

One of the major improvements in the new release is the large reduction in peer INV (inventory) object counts. Previously, Dogecoin Core nodes maintained a large and often excessive list of inventory items for each peer. The latest update streamlines this to a more reasonable number, optimizing resource allocation across nodes and reducing unnecessary network traffic.

The update further refined the network’s efficiency and overhauled the system for tracking transaction requests. The new system improves the way Dogecoin Core communicates with other peers by prioritizing outgoing peers over incoming peers. This prioritization is crucial because it makes CPU and memory usage more predictable and scalable, which is especially important as the number of peers increases.

Additionally, orphan transactions are now handled in a better way. Previously, they were managed in a complex and resource-intensive way, but now orphan transactions are handled in a similar way to regular “getdata” messages. This change not only speeds up the processing of these transactions, but also simplifies the underlying code, making it easier to maintain and less prone to errors.

Another notable change is the reduction of getheaders traffic for INV messages. In the past, Dogecoin Core would send multiple getheaders messages per INV message, which increased bandwidth usage and complicated the codebase. The update changes this approach by sending a single “getheaders” message for a single block when announced in an INV message, reducing traffic and simplifying the interaction logic.

The release also includes a better approach to reporting difficulty adjustment errors. Before this update, difficulty adjustment violations were not reported for chains that branched before the last checkpoint. This issue has been addressed by reordering the checks and moving the checkpoint check to after the difficulty check, improving the accuracy of the network’s self-checking capabilities.

Security is a key focus of this update, highlighted by the detailed documentation in the SECURITY.md file, which outlines procedures for reporting potential vulnerabilities. This proactive approach is crucial to maintaining trust and integrity within the Dogecoin network.

On the technical side, the update includes several dependency upgrades, such as fontconfig to version 2.12.6, freetype to version 2.11.0, and expat to version 2.6.2. These upgrades ensure that Dogecoin Core runs on secure and efficient libraries. Additionally, the update allows compilation with Boost 1.80 and later, and supports compilation with updated C++ standards, improving code robustness and future-proofing the development environment.

At the time of going to press, DOGE was trading at $0.10134.

Main image from iStock, chart from TradingView.com