For the first time since May 2023, the number of Trusted Keys with Commit privileges on Bitcoin Core’s master branch has been expanded.
On January 8, 2026, a pseudonymous developer known as TheCharlatan—also referred to as “sedited”—was added to this exclusive group of keyholders.
TheCharlatan now joins five other trusted maintainers: Marco Falke, Gloria Zhao, Ryan Ofsky, Hennadii Stepanov, and Ava Chow.
Over the past decade, new members have joined this elite circle at various times: Falke in 2016; Samuel Dobson in 2018 (who departed by 2022); Stepanov and Chow both in 2021; Zhao in 2022; and Ofsky most recently in 2023.
Bitcoin Core developers use PGP keys to sign software updates. Out of the GitHub community comprising twenty-five contributors for Bitcoin Core development, only these six individuals hold PGP keys granting Commit access rights.
Within a private chat among Core contributors involving over twenty participants, there was unanimous support for TheCharlatan’s elevation to Trusted Key status. No objections were raised regarding his nomination statement: “He is a dependable reviewer who has contributed significantly across critical parts of the codebase. He carefully considers what is released to users and developers alike and possesses a strong understanding of our technical consensus procedures.”
Read more: EXCLUSIVE: Lawyers call Bitcoin Core v30 CSAM concerns ‘overblown’
Introducing TheCharlatan
TheCharlatan holds a computer science degree from the University of Zurich. Originally from South Africa, he specializes in reproducibility practices along with enhancing Bitcoin Core’s validation logic.
In software engineering terms, reproducible builds guarantee that anyone can independently verify that compiled binaries correspond exactly to their source code counterparts. Additionally, TheCharlatan’s efforts build upon Carl Dong’s foundational work on Bitcoin Core’s kernel library by simplifying (“de-spaghettifying”) both validating and non-validating components needed to determine whether a specific block extends the chain with highest proof-of-work.
When Bitcoin launched back in 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto alone held Commit-level access rights for its project software repository.
Nakamoto eventually transferred this authority first to Gavin Andresen before it passed on again to Wladimir van der Laan.
Around that period—and amid contentious legal threats from Craig Wright (who ultimately lost prolonged lawsuits against core developers concerning copyright claims over Bitcoin’s whitepaper)—van der Laan spearheaded an effort aimed at decentralizing control over Commit keys by distributing them among multiple trusted maintainers instead of concentrating power within one individual.
This decentralization strategy succeeded fully and remains standard practice today within Bitcoin Core development circles where six Lead Maintainers currently share these responsibilities collectively.