Added
* Improved logging. Added logging to file. Added `--log-level` option to `bigchaindb start` command. Added new logging configuration settings. Pull Requests
[1285](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1285),
[1307](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1307),
[1324](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1324),
[1326](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1326),
[1327](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1327),
[1330](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1330),
[1365](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1365),
[1394](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1394),
[1396](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1396),
[1398](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1398) and
[1402](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1402)
* Events API using WebSocket protocol. Pull Requests
[1086](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1086),
[1347](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1347),
[1349](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1349),
[1356](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1356),
[1368](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1368),
[1401](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1401) and
[1403](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1403)
* Initial support for using SSL with MongoDB (work in progress). Pull Requests
[1299](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1299) and
[1348](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1348)
Changed
* The main BigchainDB Dockerfile (and its generated Docker image) now contains only BigchainDB Server. (It used to contain both BigchainDB Server and RethinkDB.) You must now run MongoDB or RethinkDB in a separate Docker container. [Pull Request 1174](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1174)
* Made separate schemas for CREATE and TRANSFER transactions. [Pull Request 1257](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1257)
* When signing transactions with threshold conditions, we now sign all subconditions for a public key. [Pull Request 1294](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1294)
* Many changes to the voting-related code, including how we validate votes and prevent duplicate votes by the same node. Pull Requests [1215](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1215) and [1258](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1258)
Removed
* Removed the `bigchaindb load` command. Pull Requests
[1261](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1261),
[1273](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1273) and
[1301](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1301)
* Removed old `/speed-tests` and `/benchmarking-tests` directories. [Pull Request 1359](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1359)
Fixed
* Fixed the URL of the BigchainDB docs returned by the HTTP API. [Pull Request 1178](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1178)
* Fixed the MongoDB changefeed: it wasn't reporting update operations. [Pull Request 1193](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1193)
* Fixed the block-creation process: it wasn't checking if the transaction was previously included in:
* a valid block. [Pull Request 1208](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1208)
* the block-under-construction. Pull Requests [1237](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/issues/1237) and [1377](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/issues/1377)
External Contributors
In alphabetical order by GitHub username:
* anryko - [Pull Request 1277](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1277)
* anujism - [Pull Request 1366](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1366)
* jackric - [Pull Request 1365](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1365)
* lavinasachdev3 - [Pull Request 1358](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1358)
* morrme - [Pull Request 1340](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1340)
* tomconte - [Pull Request 1299](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1299)
* tymlez - Pull Requests [1108](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1108) & [1209](https://github.com/bigchaindb/bigchaindb/pull/1209)
Notes
* MongoDB is now the recommended database backend (not RethinkDB).
* There are some initial docs about how to deploy a BigchainDB node on Kubernetes. It's work in progress.