Bitcoin Core Expands Trusted Maintainer Set with Sixth Keyholder

Bitcoin Core has welcomed a new trusted maintainer as "TheCharlatan" gains commit key privileges. This marks the first addition of a developer with commit power to the master branch of Bitcoin Core software since May 2023.

Key Takeaways:

Bitcoin Core has added a sixth trusted maintainer, TheCharlatan, who joins five other developers with commit power.
TheCharlatan's promotion reflects the support of the Core development community, recognizing his reliable contributions and understanding of the codebase.
The current governance structure of Bitcoin Core was formed through efforts to decentralize control after legal challenges faced by prior maintainers.

Bitcoin Core adds sixth trusted maintainer

Overview of Recent Contributor Changes

On January 8, 2026, a developer using the pseudonym TheCharlatan, also known as “sedited,” was officially recognized as the sixth keyholder. He joins an esteemed group of developers: Marco Falke, Gloria Zhao, Ryan Ofsky, Hennadii Stepanov, and Ava Chow.

The selection of Trusted Key holders has been refined over the last decade. Marco Falke received his access in 2016, followed by Samuel Dobson in 2018, who left by 2022. Other keyholders include Stepanov and Chow, who both joined in 2021, Zhao in 2022, and Ofsky in 2023, as chronicled in Bitcoin Core's development records.

Bitcoin developers utilize PGP keys to sign their software updates, and only these six PGP keys are acknowledged for commit access among the 25 members of the GitHub development community for Bitcoin Core software.

In a discussion among Core contributors, TheCharlatan’s elevation to Trusted Keys status gained the support of at least 20 members, with no objections noted. The nomination highlighted his reliability as a reviewer and his extensive work in vital areas of the codebase, emphasizing his thoughtful approach to delivering quality software to users and developers. Furthermore, his understanding of the technical consensus process was also noted as a strength.

TheCharlatan is a computer science graduate from the University of Zurich, originally from South Africa. His focus lies in reproducibility and Bitcoin Core’s validation logic. Reproducible builds in software development allow for independently verifiable transitions from source code to binary code. He is advancing validation logic inspired by Carl Dong's work on the Bitcoin Core kernel library, which differentiates between validating and non-validating logic for determining whether a block extends the current best-work chain.

When Bitcoin was introduced in 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto was the sole individual with commit-level access to the software. Nakamoto later transferred key privileges to Gavin Andresen, who then passed control to Wladimir van der Laan. In response to legal threats from Craig Wright—who lost lengthy court battles against Core developers concerning copyright of Bitcoin’s whitepaper—van der Laan spearheaded efforts to distribute control of commit keys among a group. This decentralization has established the current leadership structure in Bitcoin Core development, which is now managed by six Lead Maintainers.