2026-01-31 –, Machankura
Bitcoin is often described as “money that just works.” Blocks keep coming, transactions confirm, and value moves across borders with no central authority. But beneath this seamless experience is an invisible infrastructure powered by real humans: developers reviewing pull requests at midnight, debating edge cases, maintaining critical code, and sustaining the network’s resilience.
This talk explores the often-overlooked human layer of Bitcoin open-source development and why decentralizing that layer is essential for Bitcoin’s long-term survival. Drawing from Btrust’s work across the Global South, we'll explore what it takes to build sustainable developer pipelines beyond funding.
Because adoption without resilient infrastructure is just marketing, and decentralized money requires decentralized builders.
Most people only see the “magic” of Bitcoin: a network that runs flawlessly in the background. But that magic is only the tip of the iceberg.
Behind Bitcoin is an invisible infrastructure of contributors, engineers, reviewers, maintainers, and community builders, doing the unglamorous, high-stakes work that keeps the protocol alive. Historically, this work has been geographically concentrated, creating a quiet centralization risk for a system meant to be decentralized.
In this session, we'll go behind the scenes of Bitcoin development and into the work Btrust is doing to change that reality.
This talk is ultimately a reminder that Bitcoin’s future depends not only on code, but on the people, and the invisible work, that sustain it.
Sharon leads communications at Btrust, a non-profit working to decentralize Bitcoin open-source software development. She’s a creative communicator with a passion for storytelling, community building, and making complex ideas easy to understand. With a background in psychology, Sharon brings a human-centered approach to her work, focusing on inclusion, connection, and well-being while building meaningful spaces, both online and offline.
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