On Thursday night, developer Samuel Dobson revealed that he is stepping down as a Bitcoin Core maintainer after three years because he “can no longer dedicate the time required, as I approach the end of my Ph.D.” as made known in a series of tweets.

“I am officially stepping down as a maintainer of Bitcoin Core. Serving as the wallet maintainer for the past three years has been an absolute privilege, and I want to thank my incredibly generous sponsor John Pfeffer (@jlppfeffer) for his support throughout.”

Samuel Dobson’s Time As A Bitcoin Core Developer

Dobson had direct access to the cryptocurrency’s source on GitHub as a Bitcoin Core wallet developer, with powers to approve updates and make enhancements to the Bitcoin program. He was also in charge of guaranteeing the protocol’s security.

When asked if he plans to return to BTC Core development in the future, Dobson told Cointelegraph that his Ph.D. is his major priority right now. He is also uninterested in the growth of other cryptocurrencies, despite the fact that he hasn’t chosen what he will do after graduation.

Dobson expressed his gratitude for John Pfeffer’s “incredibly generous support,” without which he would not have been able to focus on Bitcoin part-time. Because of the nature of open-source projects, he requested that the Twitter community consider financially sponsoring a developer. According to Cointelegraph, he also stated:

“Bitcoin Core development has obviously grown immensely since its conception back with Satoshi. As an open source project, it will always be in an interesting and more difficult position funding-wise, but things like Brink, Chaincode, Spiral, and direct developer sponsorship via GitHub have helped a lot.”

Bitcoin Has Lost Two Developers In Less Than Three Months

Since October, Bitcoin has lost two of its maintainers. According to an updated list on the Bitcoin Forum, with Dobson’s resignation, the number of developers having direct access to Bitcoin code has fallen to five. While Samuel Dobson’s department isn’t much cause for concern, the community is eager to see how Bitcoin development will fare in the future and to also see to the possible replacement of the developers that have exited.