v0.7.2: Nakamoto's Pre-approval by US Congress

We're pleased to announce c-lightning 0.7.2, named by @darosior.

Note: new dependency python3-mako required when building from source!
(Also: note git tag is v0.7.2.1, due to last-minute build and packaging fixes)

Highlights for Users

• Dynamic plugin support: add and remove without restarting lightningd.
• We now ignore sync error which lnd sends if we're too slow, instead of freaking out and closing the channel.
• close defaults change: now unilterally closes after 48 hours if peer unreachable/uncooperative.
• A few operations are restricted if we're not yet synced with the bitcoin network on startup.
• contrib/bootstrap-node.sh script to help connect your new node to the network.
• Signet support: overzealously merged before bitcoind did, but now we're owning it.
• Bugfixes and more plugin hooks for plugin authors.

Highlights for the network

• We now notice if old channels (before this node existed) close, and won't spam them in gossip.
• We correctly ignore unknown odd-numbered messages, as per the specification.
• We space out reconnection on startup if there are more than 5 channels.

More details can be found in https://github.com/ElementsProject/lightning/blob/v0.7.2.1/CHANGELOG.md.

Contributions

Thanks to everyone for their contributions and bug reports: please keep them coming!

Since 0.7.1 we've had 334 commits from 18 different authors, with 6 first-time contributors!

• Karl-Johan Alm
• @tasoshi
• @sskender
• Nicola Squartini
• Juraj Bednar
• Chirimen-Jako

Cheers,
Rusty, Christian, ZmnSCPxj and Lisa.