Bitcoin is a decentralized system, which means it is not maintained or governed by any single entity or organization. However, its development and evolution are handled by an open-source community.

The codebase for Bitcoin is stored on GitHub and can be accessed and contributed to by anyone. The most important changes or updates to the system (like protocol modifications) are usually proposed as Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIPs), and must gain consensus from the majority of the network’s participants to be implemented.

The current reference implementation for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Core, is maintained by a group of voluntary developers. It’s important to note that while these developers can propose changes, they don’t have the power to unilaterally change the rules of the system – such changes must achieve consensus among the network’s participants.

Serious question: While Bitcoin is decentralized, a small group of developers primarily contribute to Bitcoin Core, the reference client. If this group were to become compromised, it could pose risks, at least in the short term, to Bitcoin’s integrity. Even though such rogue changes could ultimately be rejected by the network participants, it could lead to chaos, loss of trust, and market turmoil. How are we supposed to help protect Bitcoin Core developers and Network Participants?