The Blockspace Pod: Inside Bitcoin Core's Newest Maintainer

Jan 17, 2026

Explore the intriguing addition of the newest maintainer in Bitcoin Core, known as 'The Charlatan.' Delve into the evolution of Bitcoin’s governance, moving away from a single lead maintainer to a collaborative model with six members. Discover the ambitious 'Bitcoin kernel' project aimed at promoting client diversity and maintaining consensus compatibility. The discussion also touches on the opaque nature of governance and how this shift could impact the future of Bitcoin’s scalability and competition among clients.

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INSIGHT

Consensus Is The Core Requirement

Bitcoin Core is a large client with many components, but only the consensus rules must match across nodes.
Separating consensus code helps other clients remain compatible while allowing different implementations.

INSIGHT

Maintainership Is Gatekeeping On GitHub

GitHub hosts the Bitcoin Core repo but only a small set of maintainers have merge keys.
Those maintainers act as gatekeepers who moderate reviews and merge code into releases.

ANECDOTE

The New Sixth Maintainer

For the first time since Feb 2023, Bitcoin Core added a sixth maintainer known as Seditator/The Charlatan.
His domain is libbitcoin-kernel and consensus separation, which earned community trust.

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We dive into the mystery of the newest Bitcoin Core maintainer and the project to separate consensus code. From GitHub hierarchies to the quest for client diversity, learn how a $2 trillion network is actually governed and why the "lead maintainer" no longer exists.

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Explaining the latest shakeup in Bitcoin development: the addition of a sixth Bitcoin Core maintainer known as "The Charlatan." We explore the history of Bitcoin’s governance—from Satoshi to Wladimir van der Laan—and why the project has moved away from a single lead maintainer. We also break down the "Bitcoin kernel" project, an initiative to separate consensus code to allow for a more diverse ecosystem of Bitcoin clients, and address the common conspiracies surrounding who really controls the network.

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Notes:

* Bitcoin is a $2 trillion network asset.

* Bitcoin Core has six current maintainers.

* No person officially holds lead maintainer title.

* GitHub is a Microsoft-owned product.

* Bitcoin on path to $100 trillion valuation.

* New maintainer added first time since Feb 2023.

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

03:09 What's Github?

05:29 What is a Maintainer?

09:27 Client diversity

16:24 Lead maintainer

18:28 Faketoshi

26:15 New Maintainer

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