For the First Time in Three Years, the Sixth Bitcoin Core Maintainer Emerges

Odaily星球日报Published on 2026-01-14Last updated on 2026-01-14

Abstract

On January 8, Bitcoin Core appointed developer TheCharlatan as its sixth core maintainer, the first such addition since 2023. Core maintainers hold trusted keys and are responsible for merging code into Bitcoin Core repository and signing official releases, ensuring the software’s authenticity and security. There are now six trusted maintainers, including Marco Falke, Gloria Zhao, Ryan Ofsky, Hennadii Stepanov, and Ava Chow. The role of a core maintainer is compared to an "editor" in the development process—they review and approve code contributions but do not have unilateral power to change on-chain rules. Bitcoin upgrades still depend on broader community consensus. TheCharlatan, a computer science graduate from the University of Zurich, has been contributing to Bitcoin Core since 2018 and has over a decade of experience in crypto development. He is known for his work on improving Bitcoin Core’s verification logic and modularization. His appointment was supported by at least 20 Bitcoin Core developers. The article also highlights the historical context of Bitcoin Core maintainers, noting that Satoshi Nakamoto originally held sole maintainer authority, which was later decentralized. Core maintainers are highly trusted individuals within the community, with significant influence over the project’s development direction.

Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)

Author | Golem (@web 3_golem)

On January 8, the Bitcoin Core team promoted developer TheCharlatan (X: @sedited) to core maintainer, making him the sixth member to hold trusted keys. The other five core maintainers with trusted keys include: Marco Falke (promoted in 2016), Gloria Zhao (promoted in 2022), Ryan Ofsky (promoted in 2023), Hennadii Stepanov (promoted in 2021), and Ava Chow (promoted in 2021).

This appointment marks the first addition of a trusted key holder since 2023. Over the past decade, only 13 people have been granted this permission, highlighting its importance and the strictness of the selection process.

Bitcoin Core Maintainers: The 'Editors' of Bitcoin Developers

Bitcoin Core is currently the primary development and maintenance team for the Bitcoin mainnet. It is responsible for writing, maintaining, testing, and releasing the majority of the full node software, along with accompanying tools and documentation. Bitcoin Core is non-profit and operates mainly on funding from external companies.

The Bitcoin Core development team consists of 41 members who contribute the vast majority of the project's code. Among them, only 6 developers are granted the status of 'Core Maintainer'—they are the only six people in the world with the authority to merge code into Bitcoin Core and sign the released program files (binaries).

Signatures of the 6 core maintainers

To draw an analogy, Bitcoin Core maintainers are like the 'editors' of the Bitcoin network developers; anyone can contribute code and submit PRs to the codebase, but only the core maintainers have the authority to merge code into the official codebase and sign releases. This is similar to editors reviewing manuscripts, deciding whether developers' code is accepted for publication or returned for modification.

The signatures of Bitcoin Core maintainers ensure security, giving all nodes and users confidence that the release is 'official and unaltered.' However, Bitcoin Core maintainers do not have the direct power to trigger changes to on-chain rules. For example, even if Bitcoin Core maintainers have signed and released program files for a soft fork or hard fork of the Bitcoin network, the actual success of the upgrade depends on adoption and consensus from users and miners, not just the signatures of the Bitcoin Core maintainers.

When Bitcoin was first created, Satoshi Nakamoto was the only core maintainer, with sole authority to change the core codebase. Later, Satoshi passed this privilege to Gavin Andresen, who then passed it to Wladimir van der Laan. This means that for a long time, the power to maintain/change the Bitcoin network code was in the hands of one person. It wasn't until 2022, when Wladimir van der Laan stepped down and became embroiled in litigation with Craig Wright (who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto), that this power began to be decentralized.

Even so, Bitcoin Core maintainers still play a crucial role. Those who become core maintainers typically have high levels of trust and reputation within the community or have made outstanding contributions to the Bitcoin network.

For example, one core maintainer, Ava Chow, is a transgender female developer. In 2024, when Bitcoin core developer Luke Dashjr wanted to restrict Ordinals transactions at the consensus level, it was she who rejected Luke Dashjr's PR on the grounds of 'no consensus and creating noise,' preventing a potential severe split in the Bitcoin network consensus and becoming an unsung hero.

Ava Chow attended Bitcoin 2024 event

For introductions and contributions of other core maintainers, please refer to previous articles(related reading:Who is guarding Satoshi's legacy? A look at the 41-person army behind Bitcoin's trillion-dollar market cap). Next, we will introduce why TheCharlatan became the sixth core maintainer.

TheCharlatan: A Decade of Experience in Crypto Development

TheCharlatan graduated from the University of Zurich with a degree in computer science. He is South African and focuses on reproducibility and the verification logic of Bitcoin Core. In a 2024 blog post, he claimed to have been developing this project for over two years. TheCharlatan's work involves systematically splitting, organizing, and modularizing Bitcoin Core's verification logic, allowing other users to safely reuse it.

TheCharlatan

TheCharlatan is widely popular among Bitcoin Core developers. In the process of promoting him to core maintainer, at least 20 members expressed their approval. When nominating him, glozow praised: 'He is a reliable reviewer with extensive experience in key areas of the codebase, thoughtful about what we deliver to users and developers, and very familiar with the technical consensus process.'

Bitcoin Core core developer group chat content (translated)

According to his GitHub account information, TheCharlatan first started crypto development in 2015 by creating a cryptocurrency price display tool. This tool was a simple Linux desktop widget with built-in price alerts that triggered when set thresholds were reached. His crypto development activities became more frequent after 2017. He began contributing code to Bitcoin Core in 2018, so it can be inferred that TheCharlatan first encountered Bitcoin Core 8 years ago, making him a veteran.

It is also worth noting that in 2021-2022, TheCharlatan contributed to a Farcaster project codebase. This project allowed people to exchange Bitcoin and Monero peer-to-peer with anyone running a Farcaster node.

TheCharlatan does have a 'soft spot' for Monero. In 2020, he researched the potential destruction issues caused by using hardware wallets to transfer Monero and discussed time-lock vulnerabilities in Monero.

Of course, true tech geeks can be somewhat elusive. TheCharlatan often retweets technical posts on platform X but rarely expresses his own opinions (in May 2025, he posted that he hates NFTs even more). However, since June 2025, he has been repeating a tweet every month that says: 'Cash on the internet. No auto-updates.'

I was afraid this might be some kind of secret code among Bitcoin tech geeks or a cultural slogan I wasn't aware of, so I asked AI to explain the meaning of these two sentences. The AI said these two sentences actually express an extreme Bitcoin fundamentalist view:

'True internet-native cash should be as simple, brutal, and immutable as cash. Once you start with automatic updates, governance votes, and frequent rule changes, it's no longer cash; it becomes another centralized/semi-centralized/manipulable 'digital bank account'.'

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