After more than nine years as main developer, Van der Laan has left the Bitcoin Core Github repository. last february. Not only was this a major loss, it is also representative of the current state of the Bitcoin mainnet. Right now, there are only four active maintainers left. And much of the bug fixes and updates depend on them.
Four programmers to review the secrets of Bitcoin. He Wall Street Journal describes how the maintenance of Bitcoin Core works, the open project for the maintenance of Bitcoin nodes and the wallet that verifies payments autonomously. We have a group of almost unknown programmers who are in charge of secretly correcting possible security flaws and modifying the project code.
They are considered the successors of Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of Bitcoin. Almost a decade ago there were around twenty maintainers (‘maintainer‘), but today only four of them have an active leading role.
Each one deals with a specific aspect. Hennady Stepanov, Michael Ford, Andrew Chow, and Gloria Zhao. Three men and one woman, each of them dedicated to a specific aspect, such as the graphical user interface, the connection with the wallets or the code that validates the processes and transactions.
These developers are the ones who make sure that the bitcoin code be updated and compatible with the latest versions of operating systems, as well as adapted to the volume of transactions required. Although it is an open and open source project, the work of these maintainers is considered essential for the proper functioning of the network.
Numerous casualties in recent years. Van der Laan spent more time as the main developer of Bitcoin Core than Satoshi himself. But besides him, several maintainers have been unsubscribed in the last two years. At the end of 2021 it was samuel dobson, who was working on the wallet and security protocol and left the project to focus on his PhD. A little earlier he did Jonas Schnelli.
In 2022, Gloria Zhao, the first maintainer, began to collaborate. She did it instead of Pieter Wille, that after a time without contributing, he decided to return the permissions and access to the code.
But the most important loss has been that of Marco Falke, also last February, with more than 2,000 commits and with more than seven years collaborating as maintainer. “I remain passionate about open source and Bitcoin and positive about the future, however being a maintainer is no longer a good fit for me personally,” explained Falke.
Not one of the maintainers, but a major contributor. Dhruvkaran Mehta has left the Bitcoin Core project to focus on his own blockchain startup.
a lot of pressure. As explained by the WSJ, Van der Laan left his position as maintainer due to “exhaustion, health problems and constant and strange fights on social networks.” Some arguments that would not be only for his particular case, since other programmers have also expressed their concerns after abandoning the role of maintainer.
In the case of Jonas Schnelli, he pointed out the growing legal risks towards maintainers. It’s about the war they maintain against Craig Wrightwho claims to be the person behind Satoshi Nakamoto.
Another argument that the WSJ explains is that the usual salary for Bitcoin Core developers is approximately 50% lower than that offered by Big Tech for positions with similar functions.
The difference between a contributor and a maintainer. These four maintainers are in charge of monitoring and supervising the implementations in the base code. They are not the ones who make and approve them, but they are the ones in charge of their final implementation.
The maintainers themselves are chosen by the considerably larger Bitcoin developer community on Github. Once a name is proposed, it is voted on and granted access to the trusted keys in order to become a maintainer and be able to apply changes to the Bitcoin Core.
A stronger community behind the four. “It is crucial to understand that Bitcoin is not controlled by maintainers,” sums up Joe Burnett, Blockware Solutions analyst. This is because the changes are decided by the developer community, made up of hundreds of programmers. Approximately 300 assets, according to explains James Butterfillcrypto analyst at ETF Securities.
The development of Bitcoin Core is a carefully reviewed process. Maintainers themselves are also unable to make changes without review by other contributors. Precisely this large number of steps to apply changes is what has led to the development of Bitcoin Core being quite conservative.
For decentralization hands are needed. That the number of maintainers has been reduced so much is not a casual process. The Bitcoin Core Github community posts reflect that a decentralization of updates is sought.
That figure of the maintainer who applies the changes is still needed, but the intention is that the decisions go through as many developers as possible. This requires help from interested programmers. Because as in any other open source project, the strength will ultimately lie in the many people who decide to participate.
Image | Pete Linforth
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