Bitcoin Core developer Gloria Zhao has stepped down as a maintainer and revoked her Fairly Good Privateness (PGP) signing key, ending about six years as one of many mission’s gatekeepers.
On Thursday, Zhao submitted her final pull request to the Bitcoin GitHub repository, eradicating her key from the trusted keys and withdrawing herself as one of many few maintainers capable of replace Bitcoin’s software program.
Changing into the primary recognized feminine maintainer in 2022, she targeted on mempool coverage and transaction relay: the foundations and peer‑to‑peer logic that resolve which transactions get into nodes’ ready rooms and the way shortly they propagate throughout the community.
She helped design and implement bundle relay (BIP 331) and TRUC (Topologically Restricted Till Affirmation, BIP 431), together with upgrades to exchange‑by‑charge (RBF) and broader P2P habits, making charge bumping extra dependable and decreasing censorship.
Zhao’s work was funded by way of Brink, the place she grew to become the group’s first fellow in 2021, along with her fellowship backed by the Human Rights Basis’s Bitcoin Growth Fund and Jack Dorsey’s Spiral (previously Sq. Crypto), putting her amongst a small cohort of publicly supported, full‑time open‑supply Bitcoin protocol engineers.
Past her technical contributions, Zhao mentored new contributors and co‑ran the Bitcoin Core PR Overview Membership, serving to junior builders learn to overview advanced modifications and navigate Core’s conservative overview tradition.
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Break up over OP_RETURN and Knots
Her resignation comes after greater than a 12 months of public disputes between Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots, and the removing of OP_RETURN limits, a struggle over whether or not Bitcoin’s default node software program ought to make it more durable to make use of block area for non‑financial knowledge.
In 2025, Zhao deleted her X account amid private assaults throughout the OP_RETURN conflict, after a livestream during which a core developer questioned her credentials.
Whereas some Bitcoin Core critics celebrated Zhao’s departure, others took a extra somber tone.
“They bullied her and made her life as depressing as attainable till she rage stop, and fairly frankly, I believe what they did to her was tragic,” stated pseudonymous Bitcoiner Pledditor.
Pledditor added that it set a “horrible precedent” and referred to as it, “unhappy and pathetic.
“Congratulations you lastly did it. You bullied considered one of Bitcoin Core’s most prolific and persistently glorious maintainers till she gave up,” stated Chris Seedor, co-founder and CEO at Bitcoin pockets backup firm Seedor.
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