TechFlow news — On January 12, according to Protos, the Bitcoin Core development team added a new Trusted Keys holder with commit access to the main branch on January 8, 2026. The developer, known by the pseudonym TheCharlatan (also "sedited"), has become the sixth core maintainer.
This marks the first expansion of the group of Trusted Keys holders with code commit privileges since May 2023. With TheCharlatan's addition, the current core maintenance team now includes Marco Falke, Gloria Zhao, Ryan O'Flynn, Hennadii Stepanov, Ava Chow, and TheCharlatan.
TheCharlatan holds a degree in computer science from the University of Zurich, hails from South Africa, and primarily focuses on reproducible builds and research into Bitcoin Core's validation logic.
