---
title: Release Process
description: Description to verify releases
---
# Release Process

Binaries for the C++ binding file (which includes libbitcoind statically linked in) are distributed for convenience. The binary binding file `bitcoind.node` is signed and published to S3 for later download and installation. Source files can also be built if binaries are not desired.

## How to Verify Signatures

```
cd build/Release
gpg --verify bitcoind.node.sig bitcoind.node
```

To verify signatures, use the following PGP keys:

- @braydonf: https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x9BBF07CAC07A276D
- @kleetus: https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x33195D27EF6BDB7F
- @pnagurny: https://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x0909B33F0AA53013

## How to Release

Ensure you've followed the instructions in the README.md for building the project from source. When building for any platform, be sure to keep in mind the minimum supported C and C++ system libraries and build from source using this library. Example, Ubuntu 12.04 has the earliest system library for Linux that we support, so it would be easiest to build the Linux artifact using this version. You will be using node-gyp to build the C++ bindings. A script will then upload the bindings to S3 for later use. You will also need credentials for BitPay's bitcore-node S3 bucket and be listed as an author for the bitcore-node's npm module.

- Create a file `.bitcore-node-upload.json` in your home directory
- The format of this file should be:

```json
{
  "region": "us-west-2",
  "accessKeyId": "xxx",
  "secretAccessKey": "yyy"
}
```

When publishing to npm, the .gitignore file is used to exclude files from the npm publishing process. Be sure that the bitcore-node directory has only the directories and files that you would like to publish to npm. You might need to run the commands below on each platform that you intend to publish (e.g. Mac and Linux).

To make a release, bump the `version` and `lastBuild` of the `package.json`:

```bash
git checkout master
git pull upstream master
git commit -a -m "Bump package version to <version>"
npm install
npm run package
npm run upload
npm publish
```

And then update the `version` of the `package.json` for development (e.g. "0.3.2-dev"):

```bash
git commit -a -m "Bump development version to <version>"
git push upstream master
```

Create a release tag and push it to the BitPay Github repo:

```bash
git tag <version>
git push upstream <version>
```
