Bitcoin Core maintainer Gloria Zhao has stepped down from her role and revoked her signing PGP key. She confirmed the move in a post on GitHub on Feb. 5.
By revoking her key, Zhao formally ended her ability to sign official Bitcoin Core software releases. Maintainers play a key role in reviewing code changes and approving final versions of the software.
Zhao became a Bitcoin Core maintainer in July 2022. Her appointment came when her PGP key was added to the trusted list, around the same time longtime contributor Pieter Wuille stepped back.
She was the first known woman to hold the maintainer role. Her position was granted through community consensus, following years of technical contributions.
Zhao focused mainly on mempool policy and transaction relay. Her work helped shape how transactions are handled, prioritized, and propagated across the Bitcoin network.
Her contributions included work on package relay, TRUC, replace-by-fee, and peer-to-peer improvements. These changes aimed to reduce inefficiencies and limit censorship risks.
Zhao began contributing to Bitcoin Core in 2020 and later joined Brink in 2021. Brink is a nonprofit backed by the Human Rights Foundation and Spiral that funds Bitcoin developers.
Over more than six years, Zhao made hundreds of commits and reviews across Bitcoin Core repositories. Her departure marks a notable change in the group responsible for maintaining Bitcoin’s core software.
