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- Bitcoin Core expanded trusted commit access after more than two years.
- A new maintainer joined following a broad consensus among developers.
- The change reflects a long shift toward decentralized governance.
For the first time since May 2023, Bitcoin Core maintainers expanded the circle of developers who hold commit authority. The update marked a governance milestone. On January 8, 2026, a pseudonymous developer known as TheCharlatan joined the group.
Developers also know him by the handle sedited. His promotion increased the number of trusted keyholders to six. Trusted keys control direct changes to the master branch of Bitcoin Core. This branch anchors the most widely used implementation of the Bitcoin protocol. Only a small set of cryptographic keys can sign changes.
The GitHub community that maintains Bitcoin Core recognizes just these keys. There are twenty-five active members in that group. Only six can commit code. TheCharlatan joined Marco Falke, Gloria Zhao, Ryan Ofsky, Hennadii Stepanov, and Ava Chow. Each already held commit authority. The addition ended a long pause in expanding access.
Collective Review and Bitcoin Contributor Consensus
Past additions occurred sporadically over the last decade. Falke joined in 2016. Samuel Dobson joined in 2018 and later stepped down by 2022. Stepanov and Chow joined in 2021. Zhao joined in 2022. Ofsky followed in 2023.
Core contributors approved the promotion through internal discussion. Developers reviewed the proposal in a group chat. At least twenty contributors expressed support. None raised objections. The nomination emphasized reliability and careful judgment.
Contributors highlighted long-term review work. Bitcoin Core relies on a culture of peer review. Developers submit changes as pull requests. Reviewers examine logic, safety, and network impact. Trusted keyholders do not act alone. They merge code only after broad agreement forms. This process reduces risk.
It preserves network stability. Developers sign software updates with PGP keys. These signatures allow users to verify authenticity. The system creates accountability without central control. Expanding the trusted set spreads responsibility. It limits failure points.
Academic Background and Focus on Reproducible Builds
TheCharlatan holds a computer science degree from the University of Zurich. He comes from South Africa. His research interests include reproducible builds and validation logic. Reproducible builds allow one to validate the binaries that have been generated from source code.
He has also worked on the restructuring of the validation logic for Bitcoin Core. This is based on the previous work of Carl Dong. In this case, the focus is on separating the validating and non-validating branches.
It all began with one maintainer in 2009. The access to commits was managed by Satoshi Nakamoto when it was launched. This access was later transferred by Nakamoto to Gavin Andresen. Andresen transferred the access to Wladimir van der Laan later on.
The project encountered threats from legal cases. There were legal cases from Craig Wright against people associated with the Bitcoin white paper. These legal cases were rejected. This is when the maintainers chose to become decentralized. There is access to commits by various leaders.
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