diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES b/RELEASE-NOTES
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--- a/RELEASE-NOTES
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES
@@ -1,3 +1,34 @@
+# Release 1.9.8
+
+* Electrum servers were upgraded to version 0.9. The new server stores
+ a Patrica tree of all UTXOs, an idea proposed by Alan Reiner in the
+ bitcointalk forum. This property allows the client to directly
+ request the balance of any address. The new commands are:
+ 1. getaddressbalance
+ 2. getaddressunspent
+ 3. getutxoaddress
+
+* In addition, two commands for message encryption were added:
+ 1. encrypt
+ 2. decrypt
+
+ The encryption algorithm is ECIES, and code was was borrowed from
+ https://github.com/jackjack-jj/jeeq. In order to know the public
+ key corresponding to a Bitcoin address, you can use the 'getpubkeys'
+ command. The 'decrypt' command assumes that the wallet has the
+ private key corresponding to the public key passed as argument.
+
+* The encrypt and decrypt functions are available in the Qt GUI (from
+ the menubar, or right click on one of your addresses if you want to
+ use its public key).
+
+* Command-line commands that require a connection to the network spawn
+ a daemon, that remains connected and handles subsequent
+ commands. The daemon terminates if it remains unused for more than
+ one minute.
+
+
+
# Release 1.9.7
* Fix for offline signing
* Various bugfixes