Bitcoin Forum

Bitcoin => Development & Technical Discussion => Topic started by: Evil-Knievel on February 20, 2015, 03:05:32 PM



Title: Are very old clients still able to participate on the bitcoin network?
Post by: Evil-Knievel on February 20, 2015, 03:05:32 PM
Just out of curiosity.
Let us say I have a very old bitcoin client installed (like v 0.3): Would this client still be able to talk to the other (newer) bitcoin nodes or are all the new protocol changes like "inv" messages backward incompatible?

Evil


Title: Re: Are very old clients still able to participate on the bitcoin network?
Post by: Evil-Knievel on February 20, 2015, 03:09:20 PM
EDIT: I think I have found the answer.
Current clients can only talk to other clients with have at least version:

static const int GETHEADERS_VERSION = 31800;


Hiowever, Bitcoin Client v.0.3.24 has only version 10300 and therefore it cannot connect to other peers.


Title: Re: Are very old clients still able to participate on the bitcoin network?
Post by: gmaxwell on February 20, 2015, 05:57:08 PM
EDIT: I think I have found the answer.
Current clients can only talk to other clients with have at least version:

static const int GETHEADERS_VERSION = 31800;


Hiowever, Bitcoin Client v.0.3.24 has only version 10300 and therefore it cannot connect to other peers.
0.3.24 has version 32400, but nodes that old will almost certainly get stuck pretty much right away due to old bugs.