Bitcoin node warning / log file notifications

[BitcoinCanSaveUsAll]

Hi everyone, I’m reaching out to the community to see if I can get a little feedback on a strange warning and some odd messages that I’m seeing on my Windows 10 GUI for my Bitcoin Core node. The main message that got my attention reads as follows:

Warning:  unknown new rules activated (versionbit2)

I noticed this warning today after the largest difficulty adjustment downwards in the history of the network and I also know that recently there has been some signaling for Taproot so I’m’ wondering if somehow this could be related to that in some way.

Additionally after reviewing my log file on the same node I noted the following observations that may be noteworthy:

-   Since block height 685006 I’ve been seeing the message that 100/100 blocks had a unexpected version

-   Then starting at block height 687516 I noticed the current warning starting in my log file.

-   At block height 689417 I again started seeing the warning again of 100/100 blocks unexpected version.

Any feedback on whether other node operators out there are also seeing similar notifications and what exactly they mean would be much appreciated.  Thanks all.

FYI this node is version .20.1 of bitcoin core.

[1714712670]

1714712670

[1714712670]

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[NotATether]

The version 0.20.1 of Bitcoin Core does not understand any Taproot-related features, or taproot metadata in blocks, and the "unknown new rules (versionbit2)" warning you are referring to is blocks signaling that they can accept Taproot transactions by flipping on Bit 2 in their flags field. Since 0.20.1 does not understand Taproot, it doesn't know what Bit 2 is supposed to do and expects it to be set to zero, but none of this will affect proper parsing or sending of transactions or blocks in the older client versions.

[HCP]

FYI this node is version .20.1 of bitcoin core.

Yeah... you'll see the same warnings in v0.21.0 as well... but if you upgrade to 0.21.1, that has the taproot activation code, those warnings will disappear.

As NotATether has mentioned, it's nothing to be concerned about... it's just related to the Taproot signaling... and won't prevent your node from operating properly.