Bitcoin Forum

This probably silly question, still I just wonder if all other blockchain projects has a 'leader' (Vitalik for Eth, and Antoliy for SOL, etc) who is managing/controlling/guiding Bitcoin development? Is there any team or a person behind all the decisions being made? I guess the code of Bitcoin was changed since Satoshi disappeared? 

The bitcoin users, and anybody who wants to, just run the bitcoin software that makes you a node, and you are part of the people managing and guding the bitcoin development, there is no leader or single human being that is in control, it is all collective stuff and that is why it is decentralized.
Bitcoin is an open source software and anybody can join in the decision making through running the full bitcoin software, those who do that are called nodes, and they alongside the miners communicate to validate transactions and reject the ones that are against the bitcoin protocol. So it goes without saying that there is no hidden or special team like in centralized services, anybody can be involved if they want to.
In centralized services one person or a small group can make a change, in bitcoin that is decentralized a change can't be made in that way or forced on the network, devs can implement additions to make the network better and more user-friendly like Lightning network implementation for example, but they can't make a change to the existing protocol because it won't be agreed upon by the entire community.

thanks for the reply, I understand in general what you saying... however, at the end of the day someone probably approving pull requests right?
I've just had quick look here if this is the correct repo: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pulls
Anyway, I will look around and see

No one, anyone could make proposal for change/improvement. But it's up to Bitcoin community to accept or reject the change/improvement.


Yes (for both Bitcoin protocol and code/software implementation).


FYI, Bitcoin Core is just one of many software to run full node.

Obviously! If it were any other way, then any troll out there would have changed the code every second of every day. There has to be one or two people who control what gets merged but that doesn't mean only they can contribute to the code, they are just overseeing things.

For example if you know programming and are familiar with the technology start making contributions to the code. If it is just improvements to the existing code you would simply open a pull request and after it is reviewed by other experts, the code will be merged. If it is a bigger change like in the consensus rules, you first have to start a proposal in mailing list and let the idea itself being discussed first and for others to see and test the code. Eventually if it is any good it will be merged so that we can move on to the next step which is for the entire bitcoin network to check it and see if they want to accept that change or not.

P.S. you should never compare bitcoin with altcoins because they are nothing alike. Mainly because altcoin users don't really care about the technical part of that altcoin and are only there to make a quick profit so changes are not reviewed by users or even the network participants. Not to mention most altcoins are already centralized like Ethereum where one person or group of devs makes all the decisions and forces the forks on the network (eg. the ETH hard fork to roll back a large number of blocks so that Vitalik and his crew could get the money they lost in a gamble on a smart contract back).

Yes that's the right repo, you can also look here to see who's contributed to the code and by how much: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/graphs/contributors?from=2009-08-30&to=2022-10-20&type=c

There are some differences according to the nature of the block that is managed, for example, Bitcoin is POW and therefore the community that approves or rejects these changes which is more decentralized than some other blockchains such as:

• Binance smart chain: Only 21 authenticators can do everything in the network such as preventing someone from sending or returning coins from an address without the "permission" of the account holder.
• Other altcoins: Early developers are either collecting a high percentage of coins or centralized mining.

It's all agreed with the miners and they all followed in Bitcoin protocol.  If there are major changes in the code, miners will usually have a power like having a "fork" IMO.

If you want to know those Bitcoin contributors' contributions, here is a graph from Aug 30, 2009 – Oct 21, 2022 (https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/graphs/contributors).

No, it wasn't.  It can't be changed.
If it's changed, that isn't Bitcoin protocol.

Technically Bitcoin protocol could be changed as long as all developers are agree with the proposal, but a Bitcoin maximalist will priority about decentralization and privacy concern, that's make Bitcoin protocol hasn't been changed since most of proposals are rejected.

That's why people who have a different vision about Bitcoin and want to create their own Bitcoin with their idea, they're fork a Bitcoin. BCH, BSV, Bitcoin Gold, and the rest coin with Bitcoin word are Bitcoin fork, which is a fake Bitcoin.

Developers are those who write the code, and most of them happen to be active with proposing changes too. There are various implementations of Bitcoin clients. Bitcoin Core (the most used), Bitcoin knots, Gocoin etc. The difference with Vitalik and Bitcoin developers is that the former is the administrator of a project that doesn't have the same policy.

Ethereum developers don't just write code. They're funded from banks to operate in a less transparent, and not censorship resistant fashion. Their user base isn't the same, legitimate-wise, either.

As you have been already told that you can also contribute to bitcoin source code but the final decision will be lying in the hand of developers who are actively working on it but it's also based on community as if you propose something which could be beneficial for the network and solve some problem then it would be added to the source code but for it you should be having all the technical knowledge of bitcoin network but if you say can change the code then it's not possible solely which is why it's secured network.


Exactly moreover they are well funded in these ways and more of centralised based coins where decisions are in their hands only but with bitcoin it's not the case and you can contribute to the code voluntarily if you have that much technical knowledge and are familiar with C++ but we should not make altcoin based comparison because they are unmatched in transparency.