Avian Core v5.0.0 — Release Notes
Avian Core v5.0.0 is a major release that rebases the entire codebase onto Bitcoin Core 30.2, bringing years of upstream improvements to Avian while preserving all Avian-specific features.
New from Bitcoin Core 30.2
These are upstream improvements that were not in Avian 4.2.0:
- Modern P2P networking, mempool, and validation engine
- CMake-based build system (replaces autotools)
- Descriptor wallets and modern wallet architecture
- Full segregated witness (SegWit) support
- MiniSketch-based efficient transaction relay (Erlay-ready)
- Compact block relay (BIP 152)
- I2P and CJDNS network support
- Updated libsecp256k1 with improved performance
- PSBT (Partially Signed Bitcoin Transaction) support, including for asset transactions
- Legacy wallet import with proper BIP44 keypath handling
- Wallet migration fixes for orphaned watch-only transactions and HD key migration
- Avian Features Ported to New Codebase
- All Avian-specific features from v4.2.0 have been ported to the Bitcoin Core 30.2 architecture:
Asset Layer
- Complete rewrite of asset consensus validation for the new UTXO and transaction framework
- Asset issuance, transfer, reissue, and restricted asset RPCs
- Asset database persistence and synchronization
- Full GUI for asset management: create, transfer, reissue, and restricted asset dialogs
Mining & Consensus
- Dual-algorithm mining (X16RT / MinotaurX)
- Per-algorithm difficulty and hashrate RPCs
- PowCache for efficient proof-of-work hash caching (powcache.dat)
- SIGHASH_FORKID (UAHF) replay protection
- Max reorg depth enforcement
GUI
- Dark and light theme switching with custom CSS theming
- Paper wallet generation and printing
- Asset management UI: sidebar navigation, UTXO duster
- Rebranded from Bitcoin to Avian across all user-facing strings and currency units (AVN/avn)
Indexing & Data
- Address index, timestamp index, and spent index support
- Additional index data structures for asset queries
New Avian-Specific Additions
Features that are new to v5.0.0 (not in 4.2.0 or Bitcoin Core):
- UTXO consolidation RPC
- Reward distribution RPC (distributereward)
- Mempool asset duplicate detection
- Burn address validation for reward distributions
Build & Infrastructure
- Deterministic Guix builds for all 7 platforms:
- x86_64-linux-gnu, arm-linux-gnueabihf, aarch64-linux-gnu
- riscv64-linux-gnu, powerpc64-linux-gnu
- x86_64-w64-mingw32 (Windows)
- x86_64-apple-darwin (macOS)
- CI pipeline for Linux, macOS, and Windows
- CUPS dependency for Qt print support (paper wallets)
- Full rebranding of binary names, man pages, install paths, and packaging
Network & Protocol
- BIP324 v2 encrypted transport disabled (incompatible with Avian's SIGHASH_FORKID)
- Pre-VERACK message filtering for peer compatibility
- Avian-specific protocol messaging and service flags
Upgrading
If you are running an older version of Avian, shut it down completely before upgrading.
Note: This release uses a new data directory (AvianV5 during RC / Avian for final release). Your existing wallet and blockchain data will need to be migrated or re-synced.
You can run v5.0.0 alongside an older version by specifying different P2P and RPC ports in the configuration file or command line, e.g.:
aviand -port=7897 -rpcport=7898
Downloads
Binaries are available for Linux (x86_64, ARM, AArch64, RISC-V, POWER), Windows (x64), and macOS (x86_64).
Credits
Thanks to The Bitcoin Core developers for the upstream codebase, the original Ravencoin developers, and the Avian Developers.