A new appointment inside the Bitcoin Core project highlights how bitcoin core keys and governance have continued to decentralize since the protocol’s early days.
New trusted key holder joins Bitcoin Core maintainers
Bitcoin Core maintainers have added a sixth Trusted Key holder with direct commit power to the master branch of the Bitcoin Core software, according to public community records. This is the first expansion of the small, high-trust group since May 2023, marking a notable change in the project’s internal security structure.
On January 8, 2026, pseudonymous developer TheCharlatan, also known as “sedited“, received Trusted Key status. He now joins existing keyholders Marco Falke, Gloria Zhao, Ryan Ofsky, Hennadii Stepanov, and Ava Chow with commit access to the project’s main codebase.
The group of Trusted Key holders has gradually evolved over the last decade. However, additions remain rare and closely scrutinized. Falke gained access in 2016, Samuel Dobson in 2018 before exiting by 2022, Stepanov in 2021, Chow in 2021, Zhao in 2022, and Ofsky in 2023, according to Bitcoin Core development records.
How trusted keys work in Bitcoin Core
Bitcoin developers sign software updates using their personal PGP keys, providing a cryptographic audit trail for code changes. However, within the broader GitHub community of 25 contributors to Bitcoin Core, only the six Trusted Keys are recognized with the authority to commit directly to the master branch.
This layered model separates general development from final integration power. Moreover, it limits the number of individuals whose keys can introduce changes into the reference implementation, helping protect the project against key compromises or social-engineering attacks.
In a group discussion among Core contributors, at least 20 members supported promoting TheCharlatan to Trusted Key status, with no objections recorded. The nomination text emphasized that “he is a reliable reviewer who has worked extensively in critical areas of the codebase, thinks carefully about what we ship to users and developers, and understands the technical consensus process well.” That said, the final decision still reflects broad social consensus among long-time contributors.
Focus on reproducible builds and validation logic
According to his development profile, TheCharlatan is a University of Zurich computer science graduate from South Africa whose work focuses on reproducibility and Bitcoin Core’s validation logic. These areas are central to the network’s security model and the reliability of node software shipped to users.
Reproducible builds ensure an independently verifiable path from source code to binary code. In practice, this allows different parties to compile identical binaries from the same source, confirming that released executables match published code. Moreover, this reduces reliance on centralized distribution channels and helps mitigate supply-chain attacks.
TheCharlatan’s work on validation logic extends earlier efforts by Carl Dong on the Bitcoin Core kernel library. That initiative aims to separate validating from non-validating logic used by nodes to decide whether a given block extends the current best-work chain. This kernel library separation makes it easier to audit security-critical paths and reduces the risk of unexpected interactions with non-validation components.
From Satoshi’s sole control to decentralized maintainership
When Bitcoin launched in 2009, only Satoshi Nakamoto held commit-level access to the project software. Over time, that centralized arrangement changed as responsibility moved to a small group of maintainers, reflecting a maturing open-source governance model.
Nakamoto later handed key privileges to Gavin Andresen, who subsequently passed control to Wladimir van der Laan. Under van der Laan’s stewardship, the project pushed to decentralize control of commit keys from a single maintainer to a group, seeking to reduce individual risk and external pressure.
This shift accelerated after legal threats from Craig Wright, who pursued multi-year court cases against Core developers over alleged copyright to Bitcoin’s whitepaper. Wright ultimately lost those cases, but the episode reinforced concerns about concentrating authority. Moreover, it galvanized efforts to formalize a structure where responsibility is distributed among multiple maintainers.
That decentralization effort created the current Core development model, where a small group of six people serve as lead maintainers and trusted key holders. Within this framework, the recent expansion of bitcoin core keys to include TheCharlatan reflects both technical merit and a continuing commitment to shared stewardship over Bitcoin Core’s reference implementation.
In summary, adding a sixth Trusted Key holder strengthens the resilience of Bitcoin Core’s governance and code review process, while reinforcing long-term trends toward decentralization and rigorous scrutiny of those with direct commit authority.
Source: https://en.cryptonomist.ch/2026/01/12/bitcoin-core-keys-expanded/
