How do I find out what the latest protocol version is?

As of october 2013, the protocol version is 70001. It's not linked anymore to client versions (so it doesn't correspond to version 0.7.0.1 in particular; 70001 was introduced in 0.8.0), and is intended to go up in increments of one, as changes specified in BIPs are implemented.

Pieter Wuille

Posted 2013-10-01T16:35:57.947

Reputation: 54 032

Thanks! How do you find this out? Is there a reason why it is not stated on the Protocol specification?

– Dan – 2013-10-01T19:35:49.540

1Updating the specification on the wiki, and adding the protocol version in which every field was introduced would be an interesting project :) – Pieter Wuille – 2013-10-01T22:22:22.300

All it needs is a sentence right at the top of the wiki page saying: 'The current protocol version is 70001.' Ideally it would also have a short description of the changes. I would update the wiki myself if I was allowed to edit it. Also where did you check to see what the current protocol version is and when it was updated? – Dan – 2013-10-01T23:31:43.433

"current" protocol version... it's a bit more complex than that. Two clients negotiate which version to use when they connect; a few dozen versions numbers exist. It's not very useful to know what the latest protocol is without knowing what it entails. And I looked here: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/v0.8.5/src/version.h#L28

– Pieter Wuille – 2013-10-01T23:44:08.150

Thanks for the help. I assumed the https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_specification wiki page was designed to tell you what the protocol entails.

– Dan – 2013-10-02T12:29:55.033

How do I find out what the latest protocol version is?

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