Sep 2, 2022
Episode 63: The Bitcoin Core Development Process
In this episode of Bitcoin, Explained, hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discuss the Bitcoin Core development process, and more specifically, the different roles that are involved in this process.
At the start of the episode, Aaron and Sjors explain what Bitcoin Core is, both in a practical sense as well as in a more definitional sense, and they touch on some slightly different ideas about this as well.
Aaron and Sjors then go on to explain the roles of three distinct types of Bitcoin Core contributors: “regular” Bitcoin Core contributors, Bitcoin Core maintainers, and the Bitcoin Core lead maintainer.
Since there are no barriers to entry, anyone can become a Bitcoin Core contributor, Aaron and Sjors point out: anyone can start contributing to the Bitcoin Core project by offering code, review of code, or perhaps other types of contributions like text translations.
Bitcoin Core maintainers, then, are Bitcoin Core contributors who can merge new code into the Bitcoin Core…