[Bitcoin-development] bitcoinj 0.9

[Mike Hearn <mike@plan99.net>]

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I'm pleased to announce the release of bitcoinj 0.9, a Java library for
working with the Bitcoin protocol. Both simplified and full verification
are supported. BitcoinJ has been used to create everything from end-user
wallet apps to network crawlers to SatoshiDice.

To get bitcoinj 0.9, check out our source from git and then run *git fetch
--all; git checkout **67b187c4c4c4*. This will place you on the 0.9 branch
in a secure manner. The roots of trust are the announcement sent to
bitcoinj-announce (which is signed by the google.comDKIM key) and the Maven
page of the bitcoinj website. This paragraph is signed with the same key as
the previous releases (16vSNFP5Acsa6RBbjEA7QYCCRDRGXRFH4m). In addition,
the 0.9 release is signed by Andreas Schildbach (GPG key id 0x8B877A60,
accessible via http://bitcoin.org/andreas_schildbach.asc) and can be
verified with *git tag -v 0.9* once you have his key.

Signature for the last paragraph:
 IEVMFkGVfE5Q7mezpNc2srdMXMkE66AEW2g7AtWa2KGa2PcK5ehqGbKPOWaL2oftcN/939VHWViMLnCKGrS3E9g=

We have a new article in the documentation library, Working with
contracts<https://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/wiki/WorkingWithContracts>.
 It shows how to create and use multi-signature transactions, signed by
different parties, using a simple API.

*New in this release*

   - Thanks to Matt Corallo, we now have a basic *fee solver* that will
   attach the correct (minimum) fee per kilobyte to a created transaction
   using the 0.8.2+ fee rules. Note that there's no attempt to minimize the
   size of a calculated transaction and thus fee, but some other optimisations
   are applied. By default bitcoinj will always attach a fee, to learn how to
   customise this refer to the article *Working with the wallet*.
   - The wallet's re-org handling code was rewritten and simplified.
   - A new class, WalletAppKit, simplifies the process of instantiating all
   the objects and files that are needed to run a basic app that can
   send/receive money.
   - Add optional support for Pieter Wiulle's native secp256k1
   implementation, which is significantly faster than Bouncy Castle.
   - Improvements to coin selection in the wallet.
   - Many new functions and minor API improvements, for instance, it's now
   easier to tell the wallet to allow spending of unconfirmed coins.
   - A new ScriptBuilder class simplifies the process of constructing
   various kinds of scripts.
   - A new block importer tool can parse bitcoind block files and process
   them, which is faster than streaming them over a network connection.
   - Support for the regtest mode added by the C++ side pull req 2632. This
   makes app development and testing easier by eliminating the need to wait
   for a block.
   - Many bug fixes and testing improvements.

*API changes*

   - NetworkParameters has now been refactored into separate classes.
   - Wallet extensions have been tweaked, please refer to the javadocs for
   details.
   - Many other minor additions and changes that are mostly backwards
   compatible.

*Known issues*
*
*
Please see the limitations and missing features
page<https://code.google.com/p/bitcoinj/wiki/Limitations> on
our website.

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