Bitcoin v0.3.18 was released on SourceForge on December 8, 2010. This was one of the final releases coordinated by Satoshi Nakamoto, who was by this time in the process of stepping back from the project.
Changes in v0.3.18:
- Fixed a wallet.dat compatibility problem if you downgraded from 0.3.17 and then upgraded again
- IsStandard() check to only include known transaction types in blocks
- Jgarzik’s optimisation to speed up the initial block download a little
The main addition in this release was the Accounts-based JSON-RPC commands that Gavin Andresen had been developing:
- getaccountaddress
- sendfrom
- move
- getbalance
- listtransactions
The IsStandard() check was a notable addition that restricted which types of transactions could be included in blocks. This was a conservative safety measure that limited the script types that nodes would relay and miners would include, reducing the attack surface while the protocol was still young. It would become a recurring topic in future Bitcoin development discussions about standardness rules versus permissionless innovation.
The prominent inclusion of Gavin Andresen’s contributions reflected the transition that was underway. Within days, Satoshi would hand over the network alert key and the Bitcoin source code repository access to Gavin.