hebasto

bitcoin/qt vs gui-qml feature comparison

Source basis: current repository code under bitcoin/src/qt and qml/.
Bitcoin Core App static docs references checked on: 2026-02-19.

Implementation status key:

• Yes = implemented and wired
• Partial = present but limited, incomplete, or not fully wired
• No = not present

hebasto

This article is written to provide the starting point for a conversation among Bitcoin Core developers. It solely reflects the opinion of the author of the article. At the time of writing, no project decisions have been made.

For more than a decade, the Bitcoin Core GUI has been an important part of providing Satoshi and everyday users with well-reviewed Bitcoin node and wallet software they can use. I believe it is important these users continue to be served and think to do so we must soon update Bitcoin Core's architecture and project organization.

I think that it's in the best interest of Bitcoin Core developers and users to:

1. Deprecate and abandon the Bitcoin Core GUI. It is insufficiently developed and reviewed, and current users have viable alternatives.
2. Focus on empowering developers to build far better and diverse GUIs than are currently available without being tied to the Bitcoin Core development and release process.

Abandon ship

hebasto

MSVC bugs related to Bitcoin Core

maflcko wrote:

If contributors here have a microsoft account, they may want to upvote the issue report, so that microsoft is aware that there is some interest in having it fixed.

---

Bug Report	Core's Issue / PR	Status	Note

hebasto

Working with a Read-Only Source Directory

To build with a read-only source directory, the build directory must reside outside of the source directory. For instance, it can be a sibling directory:

cmake -B ../build
cmake --build ../build

Running ctest is also supported for the read-only source directory:

hebasto

Building Bitcoin Core with Visual Studio

Introduction

This manual describes building Bitcoin Core with Visual Studio using tools--cmake and vcpkg--provided with the VS installation.

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio 2022 version 17.6 or later with the installed "Desktop development with C++" workload.

hebasto

Autotools vs CMake Feature Parity Table

Autotool-based build system (AT) features being listed according to the ./configure --help output.

AT feature	CM feature	Default Value
--prefix	-DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX *
--enable-shared	-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=ON *
--enable-static	-DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF * or skip it	< default >
--disable-wallet	-DENABLE_WALLET	ON

hebasto

GitHub Actions CI Notes for Developers

In response to limiting free usage of Cirrus CI, the Bitcoin Core project is in the process of partially transitioning to GitHub Actions CI (GHA).

This document aims to outline differences between Cirrus CI and GitHub Actions CI for developers.

1. Tasks Moving to GitHub Actions

Two tasks ae/will be shifted from Cirrus to GiHub Actions:

hebasto

libsecp256k1 Constant-Time Tests Demo

Some theory -- Constant-time code verification...:

In many cases, checking if the implementation is constant-time is not trivial and tools are needed.

Using Valgrind for constant-time tests.

The key details about fixes -- https://en.cppreference.com/w/c/language/volatile:

hebasto

libsecp256k1 ASM benchmarks

System: ODROID HC-1

Commit: 908e02d596b66203788e8945b1f9c93ff28a4536

No assembly optimization

$ cmake -B build

hebasto

No longer consider Ubuntu Bionic as a supported build platform

According to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases, Bionic reaches "End of Standard Support" in April.

OTOH, it does not mean "End of Life" as it is expected 5 years later, in April 2028.

In terms of Canonical's support, it makes Bionic the same as Xenial and Trusty releases.

In Bionic both default compilers, GCC and Clang, are too old to compile Bitcoin Core: GCC 7.5 and Clang 6.0.