Gloria Zhao steps away from Bitcoin Core maintainer position following six years of service
After serving six years as a pivotal mempool and policy engineer, Bitcoin Core maintainer Gloria Zhao has resigned from her position and deactivated her PGP signing key.
Gloria Zhao, a developer for Bitcoin Core, has resigned from her maintainer position and deactivated her Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) signing key, bringing to a close approximately six years of service as one of the project's key guardians.
Zhao filed her final pull request to the Bitcoin GitHub repository on Thursday, eliminating her key from the list of trusted keys and removing herself from the select group of maintainers authorized to modify Bitcoin's software.
In 2022, she made history as the first publicly recognized female maintainer, dedicating her efforts to mempool policy and transaction relay: the protocols and peer‑to‑peer mechanisms that determine which transactions enter nodes' holding areas and the speed at which they spread throughout the network.
Her contributions included the design and implementation of package relay (BIP 331) and TRUC (Topologically Restricted Until Confirmation, BIP 431), alongside enhancements to replace‑by‑fee (RBF) and more extensive P2P functionality, improving the reliability of fee bumping mechanisms and minimizing censorship risks.
Funding for Zhao's work came through Brink, where she achieved the distinction of becoming the organization's inaugural fellow in 2021, with financial backing from the Human Rights Foundation's Bitcoin Development Fund and Jack Dorsey's Spiral (previously known as Square Crypto), positioning her within a limited group of publicly funded, full‑time open‑source Bitcoin protocol developers.
In addition to her technical achievements, Zhao served as a mentor to emerging contributors and jointly managed the Bitcoin Core PR Review Club, guiding less experienced developers through the process of reviewing intricate modifications and understanding Core's cautious review environment.
Split over OP_RETURN and Knots
The timing of her resignation follows over a year of heated public disagreements between Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin Knots, centered on the elimination of OP_RETURN limits, representing a conflict over whether Bitcoin's standard node software should increase the difficulty of utilizing block space for data unrelated to monetary transactions.
During 2025, Zhao removed her X account following personal harassment throughout the OP_RETURN controversy, which escalated after a livestream event where a core developer challenged her qualifications.
Although certain Bitcoin Core detractors welcomed Zhao's exit, many others expressed a more reflective and regretful response.
They bullied her and made her life as miserable as possible until she rage quit, and quite frankly, I think what they did to her was tragic.
Pledditor, pseudonymous Bitcoiner
Pledditor further remarked that the situation established a "terrible precedent" and characterized it as "sad and pathetic."
Congratulations you finally did it. You bullied one of Bitcoin Core's most prolific and consistently excellent maintainers until she gave up.
Chris Seedor, co-founder and CEO at Bitcoin wallet backup company Seedor