Does libsecp256k1 get included within 0.12?

[pereira4]

Reading this post by theymos:

The list of signers contains the people responsible for the vast majority of work on Bitcoin Core in recent times (as well as several notable non-Core-devs), so it seems that this is Bitcoin Core's final word for now on the scaling issue.

    Very soon libsecp256k1 will be used for verification, which speeds up initial sync time by 400%-700% and reduces CPU load for all full nodes.
    A segregated witness softfork will be done ASAP (within 3-6 months, probably). This will at least double the effective transaction capacity (ie. it is equal to or better than BIP 102), and at the same time it will provide features important for safely scaling even more in the future.
    There will not be any hardfork for at least the next ~year.
    To pave the way for scalable hardfork max block size increases (which will eventually be necessary), and because it is already dearly needed, improved block/tx broadcasting technology such as weak blocks and IBLT will be implemented, hopefully soon after SegWit.
    The BIPs necessary for efficient deployment of Lightning are already in the pipeline and should be rolled out in 2016. Lightning will allow for almost all of the security, features, and decentralization of Bitcoin transactions while drastically reducing the number of on-blockchain transactions that each individual will need to perform. This is expected to be the real eventual solution to scaling.

It says that libsecp256k1 will speed up initial sync by a ton which is great, I can't wait personally to be able to fire up Core faster since right now it's a bit frustrating, but he says "very soon". I don't understand if it means very soon as when 0.12 is released or soon after 0.12.

Thanks for replies

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[achow101]

It should be. I think it was merged in a little over a month ago.

[pereira4]

It should be. I think it was merged in a little over a month ago.

Thanks, so we only need to wait for the release now then.. unfortunately it seems we will not have it as x-mas present, it may get delayed as far as February but don't quote me on this one, this is what some people seem to know.

[achow101]

It should be. I think it was merged in a little over a month ago.

Thanks, so we only need to wait for the release now then.. unfortunately it seems we will not have it as x-mas present, it may get delayed as far as February but don't quote me on this one, this is what some people seem to know.

The original schedule was for a February release, but they are a month ahead of schedule. The branching to 0.12 was supposed to be in January, but it occurred at the beginning of the month. I think we will see the release in mid January.

[Lincoln6Echo]

My question is: Will an ARM CPU like an Allwinner A20 benefit from libsecp256k1 too when running bitcoind?

https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-core/capacity-increases-faq#roadmap-dates

Libsecp256k1 verification: 500% to 700% speed boost on x86_64 hardware during verification to help new full nodes join the network and to lighten the burden on existing nodes.

Why does the source quoted above only states x86_64 hardware?

[theymos]

For certain performance-critical things, libsecp256k1 has both a C version that'll work on ~all platforms and an optimized version in x86_64 assembly code, which will be somewhat faster. libsecp256k1 should still be faster than OpenSSL overall even on ARM.