Governance
Five governance threads ran in parallel through the month
THE SHAPE OF THE MONTH
A current BIP editor (Murch) asked for a team refresh. Citadel21's "Capture" series published Article 2. A separate quantitative governance brief from Falco landed on the Bitcoin Core issue tracker. Bitcoin 2026 Las Vegas put federal regulators on stage and drew cypherpunk-leaning backlash. (ProductionReady is covered on Alt-Client Watch.)
THREAD 01 · APR 22
Murch RFC — BIP Editor Refresh
Mailing-list call to shrink the BIP-Editor team from six to three actively engaged editors.
THREAD 02 · APR 29
"The Capture" — Article 2
hodlonaut's "The Lever" published on Citadel21. Articles 3 & 4 still pending.
THREAD 03 · APR 11
Falco's "Stakeholder Equilibrium"
Independent governance brief; merge-share data on the maintainer set.
THREAD 04 · APR 27–29 — CONFERENCE POLITICS
Bitcoin 2026 Las Vegas ran a "Code & Country" forum and a fireside with FBI Director Kash Patel and Acting AG Todd Blanche. Early investor Simon Dixon called the conference "compromised."
Murch — "Time for Some New Faces?"
RFC on the bitcoindev mailing list, 2026-04-22
4,108
EDITOR COMMENTS · 2YR
596
PRs HANDLED
42
BIPs PUBLISHED
6 → 3
PROPOSED ROSTER
"For most of this time, two BIP Editors contributed most of the work. Then for the first quarter this year, I was the only BIP Editor that regularly contributed... I enjoy the work — but we added more BIP Editors two years ago because it's more than a one-person job. After two years, I propose that we refresh the BIP Editor team. My recommendation would be to aim for three BIP Editors that are all keen on regularly contributing."
— Murch (Mark Erhardt) · bitcoindev RFC, 2026-04-22
CURRENT ROSTER (PER BIP-3)
• Bryan Bishop (kanzure)
• Jon Atack
• Luke Dashjr
• Mark "Murch" Erhardt
• Olaoluwa Osuntokun (Roasbeef)
• Ruben Somsen
Murch names no one to remove; he singles out only himself as having carried Q1 2026.
• Jon Atack
• Luke Dashjr
• Mark "Murch" Erhardt
• Olaoluwa Osuntokun (Roasbeef)
• Ruben Somsen
Murch names no one to remove; he singles out only himself as having carried Q1 2026.
ON-LIST RESPONSES
• Greg Tonoski (2026-04-23) — volunteered. Tonoski is a public BIP-110 advocate and ships Knots+BIP-110 release candidates; his earlier 2024 candidacy was contested.
• Jaroslav "Zed" Dlouhy (2026-04-27) — asked clarifying questions about the role.
• stickies-v (2026-04-23) — supportive of the proposal (not a candidate): "Three sounds reasonable."
Murch's reply (2026-04-29) sets criteria: "some experience contributing to a Bitcoin project or Bitcoin protocol design; solid command of English; and enjoy detail-oriented work… 5–10 hours per week."
• Jaroslav "Zed" Dlouhy (2026-04-27) — asked clarifying questions about the role.
• stickies-v (2026-04-23) — supportive of the proposal (not a candidate): "Three sounds reasonable."
Murch's reply (2026-04-29) sets criteria: "some experience contributing to a Bitcoin project or Bitcoin protocol design; solid command of English; and enjoy detail-oriented work… 5–10 hours per week."
OPEN QUESTIONS
• No editor has publicly stepped down.
• No GitHub PR yet implements the proposed roster change.
• No reply on-list from Bishop, Atack, Dashjr, Osuntokun, or Somsen as of 2026-05-07.
• The Tonoski volunteer-and-BIP-110-advocate overlap was not addressed substantively on the thread.
• No GitHub PR yet implements the proposed roster change.
• No reply on-list from Bishop, Atack, Dashjr, Osuntokun, or Somsen as of 2026-05-07.
• The Tonoski volunteer-and-BIP-110-advocate overlap was not addressed substantively on the thread.
"The Capture" — Series Update
hodlonaut, Citadel21 — Article 2 "The Lever" published 2026-04-29
ARTICLE 01 · MAR 27
The Network
How the network assembled, 2018–2021. Residencies, fellowships, recruitment dinners, mentorship pipelines.
PUBLISHED
ARTICLE 02 · APR 29
The Lever
How influence was exercised, 2021–2025. Cases: Dashjr, Atack. O'Beirne objections.
PUBLISHED
ARTICLE 03 · TBA
— forthcoming
Governance infrastructure (expected).
PENDING
ARTICLE 04 · TBA
— forthcoming
Consequences (expected).
PENDING
THE THESIS
The series argues that Bitcoin Core governance, since ~2018, has been shaped by a connected network of developers, funders, and educators using social mechanisms (residencies, fellowships, mentorship pipelines) to advance preferred contributors and marginalise critics. It doesn't take a position on specific protocol questions — the claim is about the process behind them.
| Contested fact | Series claim | Right-of-reply |
|---|---|---|
| Brink committees | "The Organization did not have committees" per FY20–23 Form 990s. | Schmidt: a committee met but was "non-governing", not 990-reportable. |
| Newbery FY21 comp | $359,044; sources say "removed, not voluntary." | Schmidt: deferred founding-compensation for 2020 work, not severance. |
| Hiring criteria | Zhao recruited without prior Bitcoin contributions. | Corallo: criteria were "intelligence, commitment, and history of contributions." |
Falco — "The Stakeholder Equilibrium"
Independent governance brief, 2026-04-11 — distinct from "The Capture", more quantitative framing
"[Bitcoin Core is] an abandoned institution operating behind a functional maintenance facade… every mechanism that could correct the institution's trajectory has been independently disabled."
— Vinnie Falco · The Stakeholder Equilibrium: Bitcoin Core As Live Player · PDF · placeholder issue bitcoin/bitcoin#35055
MERGE CONCENTRATION (FALCO'S DATA)
fanquake: 65% of merges in 2025; 65% in 2026 YTD through April.
achow101: 24% over the same period.
achow101: 24% over the same period.
STRUCTURE
35 findings · 8 compound dynamics. Brief is structural rather than ad-hominem — focuses on merge-share, decision provenance, and review distribution.
RECEPTION
Widely cited. No formal maintainer response as of 2026-05-07.
Bitcoin Core — Process State
What changed inside the project itself — releases, maintainers, infrastructure
v31.0 RELEASE & MAINTAINER SET
Bitcoin Core v31.0 was published on bitcoincore.org 2026-04-19, GitHub release 2026-04-20, and announced on bitcoindev 2026-04-22 (Ava Chow). No add/remove activity to the maintainer set since April; the most recent change was TheCharlatan added 2026-01-08.
Current set (six):
• Michael Ford (fanquake)
• Ava Chow
• Hennadii Stepanov (hebasto)
• Ryan Ofsky
• TheCharlatan
• glozow
Current set (six):
• Michael Ford (fanquake)
• Ava Chow
• Hennadii Stepanov (hebasto)
• Ryan Ofsky
• TheCharlatan
• glozow
DELVING · "GITLAB BACKUPS FOR BITCOIN CORE REPOSITORY"
Reactivated 2026-04-30. TheCharlatan reopened a 2024 thread citing GitHub "constant outages lately"; laanwj and 0xB10C confirmed Tor-only and mirror infrastructure. delvingbitcoin.org/t/624
CROSS-REFERENCES
• Merge concentration — Falco's data (slide 4) puts fanquake at 65% / achow101 at 24% of merges across 2025 and 2026 YTD.
• Alt-client wave — ProductionReady, Hornet and Libbitcoin v4 are covered on the Alt-Client Watch deck. The historical anti-multi-client position (Maxwell, 2018) has no fresh statement this month located.
• Knots dynamics — Knots PR #238 approval, RDTS_CONSENT, the bitprojects Sybil disclosures — are on the BIP-110 deck.
• Alt-client wave — ProductionReady, Hornet and Libbitcoin v4 are covered on the Alt-Client Watch deck. The historical anti-multi-client position (Maxwell, 2018) has no fresh statement this month located.
• Knots dynamics — Knots PR #238 approval, RDTS_CONSENT, the bitprojects Sybil disclosures — are on the BIP-110 deck.
Conferences, Other Stages & Reading
BITCOIN 2026 LAS VEGAS · APR 27–29
• "Code & Country" forum and a fireside with FBI Director Kash Patel and Acting AG Todd Blanche ("Code is Free Speech: Ending the War on Bitcoin").
• Simon Dixon called the conference "compromised."
• MASTR (X, Apr 27): "Or how Bitcoin slowly became the system it was built to escape."
• Saylor's Apr 28 keynote covered Strategy's STRC instrument; no protocol governance content.
• Simon Dixon called the conference "compromised."
• MASTR (X, Apr 27): "Or how Bitcoin slowly became the system it was built to escape."
• Saylor's Apr 28 keynote covered Strategy's STRC instrument; no protocol governance content.
OTHER STAGES & THREADS
Adam Back · Paris Blockchain Week, Apr 16 — defended rough-consensus governance, framing BIP-361's calendared freeze as the wrong shape of response: "Preparation is much safer than hasty responses in a crisis" with the corollary that "bugs have been identified and fixed within hours" in past Bitcoin emergencies.
Guillaume Girard · Bitcoin Magazine, Apr 23 — frames the quantum question as a governance question: "The quantum computing threat to Bitcoin is not primarily a technical problem — it is a political one."
Stephan Livera Podcast · Apr 3 — Matyas Kuchar (BTC Prague co-founder); episode tags include "Bitcoin civil war, community divides, culture conflict, sovereignty debate."
Guillaume Girard · Bitcoin Magazine, Apr 23 — frames the quantum question as a governance question: "The quantum computing threat to Bitcoin is not primarily a technical problem — it is a political one."
Stephan Livera Podcast · Apr 3 — Matyas Kuchar (BTC Prague co-founder); episode tags include "Bitcoin civil war, community divides, culture conflict, sovereignty debate."