Bitcoin Core developers have abruptly removed download links for versions 30.0 and 30.1 after verifying a high-severity bug that deletes private keys during wallet upgrades. The vulnerability, tracked as GitHub Issue #34128, triggers a total loss of funds for users migrating older Berkeley DB (BDB) wallets to the modern descriptor format without backups.
The Mechanics of Deletion
The error occurs in the cleanup logic during the migration from BDB to SQLite. According to developer achow101, the bug manifests under specific conditions: when a user attempts to migrate a legacy wallet stored in a custom -walletdir while the node has pruning enabled. The software erroneously targets the entire wallet directory for deletion rather than temporary migration files.
Loss of access to funds is effectively guaranteed because all local wallet files are removed.
Bitget Wallet analyst Lacie Zhang noted the severity lies in the irreversibility for users lacking external backups. The bug disproportionately threatens “Satoshi-era” wallets, files created over a decade ago that have never been renamed or updated.
Market & Protocol Response
Bitcoin (BTC) disregarded the technical jitters, holding $91,317 (+1.4%) as the network’s consensus rules remain unaffected. The bug is strictly client-side, impacting only the wallet management module, not the protocol itself.
Core developers advise users to remain on v29.x or await the patched v30.2 release. Users running v30.0 or v30.1 without attempting a wallet migration are safe, though the binaries have been scrubbed from bitcoincore.org to prevent further installs.
