Bitcoin Core expands maintainer group
Bitcoin Core developers have added a new trusted maintainer to the group of contributors authorized to commit changes directly to the project’s master software branch.
On Jan. 8, 2026, a pseudonymous developer known as TheCharlatan became the sixth holder of a trusted PGP key recognized by the Bitcoin Core repository. The addition marks the first expansion of this group since May 2023.
The new maintainer joins Marco Falke, Gloria Zhao, Ryan Ofsky, Hennadii Stepanov, and Ava Chow, who collectively oversee final code approvals for Bitcoin’s primary software implementation.
Community-backed promotion
Bitcoin Core’s GitHub contributor group includes 25 active developers. Among them, six hold PGP keys that permit direct commits to the project’s master branch.
During a contributor discussion, at least 20 developers formally supported TheCharlatan’s promotion. No objections were recorded. The nomination cited extensive review activity in critical areas of the codebase and consistent participation in consensus discussions.
Focus on reproducibility and validation
TheCharlatan holds a computer science degree from the University of Zurich and focuses on Bitcoin Core’s reproducible builds and validation logic. Reproducible builds allow independent verification that compiled software corresponds directly to publicly available source code.
His work builds on prior efforts to separate validating and non-validating components in Bitcoin Core’s kernel library. This separation improves clarity in determining whether blocks extend the chain with the highest accumulated work.
Evolution of Bitcoin Core governance
At Bitcoin’s launch in 2009, only Satoshi Nakamoto held commit authority. That role was later transferred to Gavin Andresen and then to Wladimir van der Laan.
Following legal threats in 2018 and subsequent litigation involving Craig Wright, van der Laan initiated a decentralization effort to distribute commit authority among multiple maintainers. This transition established the current governance model, which now consists of six trusted keyholders responsible for safeguarding Bitcoin Core’s development process.
