Bitcoin Core maintainer Marco Falke stops after more than 10 years

Marco Falke quits as bitcoin core maintainer. The developer actively contributed to the development of bitcoin and the protocol since 2012.

Falke does not give a specific reason. However, he does indicate that it is a difficult decision to quit on Twitter: “I remain passionate about open source and bitcoin. I am positive about the future.” In that future, however, a public role no longer fits for him.

A Bitcoin Core maintainer is not in charge of bitcoin. However, it does play an important role in how bitcoin is currently being built. In practice, a developer can propose all sorts of updates and code, but the network has to pick it up. Falke has the most “commits” on GitHub to bitcoin.

When someone makes changes (also known as “commits”) to the source code, he or she creates what is known as a “branch”, which is a split off from the main branch of the code. To incorporate these changes into the main branch, they must be merged, or “merged”, with the main branch. This is done via a merge request,

Falke was financially backed by Okcoin and Paradigm. Falke is one of the key Bitcoin developers who contributed to the development of the Bitcoin Core software, which forms the basis of the Bitcoin network.

With the departure, there are only four ‘official’ Bitcoin Core maintainers left. It is not an official position within a company or organisation, but they are important factors in the way bitcoin now works and is being built out.

Developing open software does not come without risk. Just last year, an Ethereum developer was busted in Amsterdam. He was working on a mixing tool to give transactions more privacy. Alexey Pertsev is still in jail.

Author
  • Ivan Brightly

    Ivan Brightly is a leading cryptocurrency analyst and author with over 5 years of experience in the blockchain and digital asset space. He previously served as a senior analyst at a major cryptocurrency hedge fund where he led quantitative research and trading strategy development.

    Ivan holds a Master's degree in Finance from the London School of Economics and a Bachelor's in Computer Science from Stanford University. He is frequently invited to speak at fintech and blockchain conferences worldwide on topics spanning cryptocurrency trading, blockchain technology, and the future of digital assets.

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