Bitcoin

Bitcoin Core is a full Bitcoin client and builds the backbone of the network. It offers high levels of security, privacy, and stability. However, it has fewer features and it takes a lot of space and memory. This wallet is a full node that validates and relays transactions on the Bitcoin network .

Check your bandwidth and space Bitcoin Core requires a one-time download of about 400GB of data plus a further 5-10GB per month . By default, you will need to store all of that data, but if you enable pruning, you can store as little as 6GB total without sacrificing any security.

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 in some cases), then run the installer (on Windows) or just copy over /Applications/Bitcoin-Qt (on Mac) or bitcoind / bitcoin-qt (on Linux) .

Bitcoin Core can be run on an always-offline computer, creating an offline wallet (also called a cold wallet) . The offline wallet will securely store the private keys, while a separate online Bitcoin Core wallet will send and receive transactions.