Probably Adam Back for several reasons. He invented Hashcash which is used in the bitcoin mining process. He writes in the same way as Satoshi. Back was the second person Satoshi reached out to with the earliest draft of the Bitcoin whitepaper, still he acted like a noob on the forums to throw people of. Adam Back was a pioneer in the field of cryptography, and his contributions to the Cypherpunk movement were very important. He was an active participant in the group's debates, and his Hashcash function inspired the development of other algorithms and programmes by his fellow Cypherpunks, such as Hal Finney's RPoW and Bitcoin. Not only does Back have a Ph.D. in computer science and a history of studying cryptography in academia, but he has also built his whole career on ideas that are central to Bitcoin.  He is the CEO of Blockstream, which he co-founded in 2014 and I feel it´s his way to get back into control of bitcoin.

Yeah I hold 50% BTC and 50% USDC so I trade back and forth to keep it 50/50. BTC nosediving 90% would be awesome but sadly the mystery solving and dumping of the Satoshi tokens will probably not happen.

So the positions the current maintainers hold can be replaced. Found the names in an article from 2023 but it should be close to accurate if they didnt replace them recently.

Ford oversees the build system
Gloria Zhao writes and reviews the code that governs Bitcoin’s transaction validation process
Andrew Chow is in charge of programming for crypto wallets, which allow investors to store their bitcoin
Marco Falke focuses on testing
Stepanov maintains the network’s graphical user interface

I want the mystery to be solved and I´m not afraid it will hurt Bitcoin. If, for an example, Adam Back is Satoshi and he dumps his 1 million or whatever coins the price will nosedive but I will buy the dip. I´m a long term investor and the price will climb back up and I´ll be rich when I retire.

So Bitcoin can continue as usual without a hard fork and without the core maintainers and their access to Bitcoin Core’s GitHub repository? A hard fork is out of the question since it will not be Bitcoin anymore.

There are 5 Bitcoin Core maintainers who hold the keys to implement changes: Hennadii Stepanov, Michael Ford, Andrew Chow, Marko Falke, and Gloria Zhao.

Each is responsible for an aspect of Bitcoin; for example, Stepanov maintains the network’s graphical user interface, while Ford oversees the build system.

Gloria Zhao, the only woman in the maintainers’ team, writes and reviews the code that governs Bitcoin’s transaction validation process.
Andrew Chow is in charge of programming for crypto wallets, which allow investors to store their bitcoin, while Marco Falke focuses on testing.

Together, these coders keep Bitcoin’s digital ledger up to date on its network’s thousands of computers. They must ensure that the software
remains compatible with the latest versions of operating systems like Windows or MacOS and that it keeps up with transaction volumes.

Sounds like bitcoin is kinda centralized to a handfull of maintainers who hold the keys. What happens if they all die in a car crash or become dictators?

Van der Laan voluntarily gave up his access to the bitcoin client software on Feb. 16 after being at the helm for more than nine years. As the second successor to Bitcoin’s mysterious inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, he was one of the few individuals having final commit access to Bitcoin Core’s GitHub repository.

Nakamoto first owned this administrator key and then transferred it to Gavin Andresen. When Andresen, who received direct instruction from Nakamoto on maintaining bitcoin’s code, stepped down from the project nine years ago, Van der Laan took over. Van der Laan has played the lead role in maintaining all aspects of Bitcoin’s development for even longer than Satoshi. He led all operations involving bug fixes, code reviews, upgrades, software maintenance, and dispute resolution.

Only five Bitcoin Core maintainers remain. With Van der Laan’s departure, Bitcoin’s development will now be steered by five people: Hennadii Stepanov, Michael Ford, Andrew Chow, Marko Falke, and Gloria Zhao.

Each is responsible for an aspect of Bitcoin; for example, Stepanov maintains the network’s graphical user interface, while Ford oversees the build system.

Gloria Zhao, the only woman in the maintainers’ team, writes and reviews the code that governs Bitcoin’s transaction validation process. Andrew Chow is in charge of programming for crypto wallets, which allow investors to store their bitcoin, while Marco Falke focuses on testing.

Together, these coders keep Bitcoin’s digital ledger up to date on its network’s thousands of computers. They must ensure that the software remains compatible with the latest versions of operating systems like Windows or MacOS and that it keeps up with transaction volumes.

Many of the cryptocurrency’s proponents claim that its current value and future potential are partly in the hands of these maintainers.

https://crypto.news/bitcoin-core-has-only-5-developers-left-as-key-maintainer-departs/

I mean the maintainers.

From my understanding Bitcoin Core has only 5 developers. Can they make crucial changes to the Bitcoin network if they want to?