Files
bitcoin/doc
Ava Chow c7a3ea2483 Merge bitcoin/bitcoin#34692: Bump dbcache to 1 GiB
4ae9a10ada doc: add release notes for dbcache bump (Andrew Toth)
c510d126ef doc: update dbcache default in reduce-memory.md (Andrew Toth)
027cac8527 qt: show GetDefaultDBCache() in settings (Andrew Toth)
5b34f25184 dbcache: bump default from 450MB -> 1024MB if enough memory (Andrew Toth)

Pull request description:

  Alternative to #34641

  This increases the default `dbcache` value from `450MiB` to `1024MiB` if:
  - `dbcache` is unset
  - The system is 64 bit
  - At least 4GiB of RAM is detected

  Otherwise fallback to previous `450MiB` default.

  This should be simple enough to get into v31. The bump to 1GiB shows significant performance increases in #34641. It also alleviates concerns of too high default for steady state, and of lowering the current dbcache for systems with less RAM.

  This change only changes bitcoind behavior, while kernel still defaults to 450 MiB.

ACKs for top commit:
  ajtowns:
    ACK 4ae9a10ada
  kevkevinpal:
    reACK [4ae9a10](4ae9a10ada)
  svanstaa:
    ACK [4ae9a10](4ae9a10ada)
  achow101:
    ACK 4ae9a10ada
  sipa:
    ACK 4ae9a10ada

Tree-SHA512: ee3acf1fb08523ac80e37ec8f0caca226ffde6667f3a75ae6f4f4f54bc905a883ebcf1bf0e8a8a15c7cfabff96c23225825b3fff4506b9ab9936bf2c0a2c2513
2026-03-06 12:07:41 -08:00
..
2025-12-27 22:33:23 +01:00
2026-02-19 11:41:53 +01:00
2026-02-13 10:52:28 +01:00
2026-02-05 10:52:58 +00:00

Bitcoin Core

Setup

Bitcoin Core is the original Bitcoin client and it builds the backbone of the network. It downloads and, by default, stores the entire history of Bitcoin transactions, which requires several hundred gigabytes or more of disk space. Depending on the speed of your computer and network connection, the synchronization process can take anywhere from a few hours to several days or more.

To download Bitcoin Core, visit bitcoincore.org.

Running

The following are some helpful notes on how to run Bitcoin Core on your native platform.

Unix

Unpack the files into a directory and run:

  • bin/bitcoin-qt (GUI) or
  • bin/bitcoind (headless)
  • bin/bitcoin (wrapper command)

The bitcoin command supports subcommands like bitcoin gui, bitcoin node, and bitcoin rpc exposing different functionality. Subcommands can be listed with bitcoin help.

Windows

Unpack the files into a directory, and then run bitcoin-qt.exe.

macOS

Drag Bitcoin Core to your applications folder, and then run Bitcoin Core.

Need Help?

Building

The following are developer notes on how to build Bitcoin Core on your native platform. They are not complete guides, but include notes on the necessary libraries, compile flags, etc.

Development

The Bitcoin repo's root README contains relevant information on the development process and automated testing.

Resources

Miscellaneous

License

Distributed under the MIT software license.