All supported operating systems ship with python 3.10 (or later), so bumping the minimum should not cause any issues. A bump will allow new code to use new python features.
For reference:
- https://packages.debian.org/bookworm/python3
- https://packages.ubuntu.com/jammy/python3
- FreeBSD 13/14 ships with 3.11
- CentOS-like 8/9 ships with 3.11/3.12 (via
appstream
) - OpenSuse Tumbleweed ships with all python versions, e.g. https://software.opensuse.org/package/python312-base
This is for Bitcoin Core 29.0 in 2025 (next year), not the soon upcoming 28.0 this fall.