⚡️ UPDATE: BITCOIN CORE QUIETLY EVOLVES ITS POWER STRUCTURE
Bitcoin Core has added TheCharlatan as a sixth maintainer with commit access, expanding the group from Satoshi’s original solo control to six pseudonymous and public contributors today.
This may look like a minor technical update, but it isn’t. Maintainers don’t control Bitcoin, yet they sit at a critical chokepoint: deciding what code is merged, reviewed, and shipped. Expanding that circle is about resilience, not authority.
The addition reinforces a core principle Bitcoin survives on — no single individual is indispensable. As Bitcoin grows more systemically important, its development process has to become more distributed, more redundant, and harder to disrupt through pressure, burnout, or targeting.
The fact that a pseudonymous developer can rise to this role also matters. It signals that Bitcoin still prioritizes merit and contribution over identity, reputation, or institutional backing.
This isn’t governance theater.
It’s quiet decentralization — the kind that only gets noticed when it’s missing.
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