“Where is the public roadmap for Bitcoin Core?”

This sentiment from Zach is common and Ill give my own thoughts on it https://x.com/zachherbert/status/1976726178376696016

The subprojects that individual Bitcoin Core engineers contribute to reflect the project’s software development priorities which can include things like testing improvements, refactors, features, maintenance, or performance improvements.

These software engineering efforts are distinct from the Bitcoin protocol, whose consensus rules change only through broad community agreement and network adoption, not by decisions made exclusively within the Bitcoin Core repository.

If I were looking to derive a shorter term “public roadmap for Bitcoin Core” (again, the Bitcoin Core software, not Bitcoin protocol), there are a few places to look.

Working Groups

Contributors actively working on similar efforts form working groups to implement and review projects in Bitcoin Core. A list of the current working groups is on the Bitcoin Core Wiki: https://github.com/bitcoin-core/bitcoin-devwiki/wiki/Working-Groups#current-working-groups

From here we can see interest in: Erlay, Fuzzing, Kernel, Benchmarking, Silent Payments, Cluster Mempool, Stratum v2, Multiprocess, QML GUI, and Net Split

These working groups also provide updates at the weekly Bitcoin Core developer meetings on IRC: https://bitcoincore.org/en/meetings/ This is another place to see current work.

Tracking issues

Many subprojects within Bitcoin Core have a place to track a todo list of code changes that roll up into that project.

Here are just a few examples (search the GitHub for “tracking issue” for more):

Multiprocess - https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/28722 Mining interface - https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/33777 MuSig2 - https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/31246 Cluster mempool - https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/30289 Erlay - https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/30249 Bitcoin Kernel Library - https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/27587 SENDTEMPLATE - https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/issues/33691

Core Dev meetups

What developers discuss at recent in-person meetings is another data point. Here are transcripts from the October 2025 meeting - https://btctranscripts.com/bitcoin-core-dev-tech/2025-10 February 2025 meeting - https://btctranscripts.com/bitcoin-core-dev-tech/2025-02

Merged PRs

As code changes are merged into the Bitcoin Core GitHub before the next release you can see precisely what will be in the upcoming release. These code changes include PRs related to projects above, but also more general changes unrelated to a particular project, like maintenance work, additional testing, one-off features, etc.

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Amerged

Likewise Optech has a weekly notable code segment that picks interesting code merges to cover: https://bitcoinops.org/

Release Milestones

As Bitcoin Core progresses toward a new release, PRs can be tagged with a milestone representing that release.

For example, here are the items tagged for the previous v30 release: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pulls?q=is%3Apr+milestone%3A30.0

And here are considerations for the v31 release: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/pulls?q=is%3Apr+milestone%3A31.0

TLDR, just tell me what will be in v31

Sorry, there isn’t a definitive authoritative answer for a decentralized open source project like this. But also in the spirit of decentralization, I can provide my own guesses of what might be in there.

Kernel API - modular use of Bitcoin’s consensus and validation logic outside the full node

MuSig2 (in wallet) - fee-efficient, privacy-preserving multi-signature support

Cluster mempool - makes transaction relay and block assembly more efficient, predictable, and network reliability.

ASMap - help diversify peer connections, strengthening network resilience against eclipse attacks

Static builds - reproducible, portable binaries that enhance security, verifiability, and ease of deployment

I’ll emphasize that while these projects took a ton of work to get where they are, there will also be a majority of PRs in v31 that will not be part of a “project”. They will simply be general improvements, bug fixes, and maintenance work (see https://x.com/bitschmidty/status/1976692672023667057 for examples)

274 sats \ 0 replies \ @Scoresby 5 Nov

This is excellent. I feel like I have a whole month's worth of reading laid out right here. Thanks!

252 sats \ 0 replies \ @DarthCoin 5 Nov

I like these updates about Bitcoin development posted on SN. Keep them coming, please.

50 sats \ 2 replies \ @LibreHans 5 Nov

Here: https://ethereum.org/roadmap/

21 sats \ 0 replies \ @gregtonoski 22h

and there: https://x.com/citrea_xyz/status/1765415296935006475

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 5 Nov

Ha!

1221 sats \ 3 replies \ @kepford 5 Nov

Great resources. Thank you for sharing but I wanna make one point.

This comment.

But I think it should at least have a roadmap we can reference.

~ Zack Herbert

Please... only centralized projects have roadmaps. The fact it doesn't is one of the biggest reasons I am all in for bitcoin. There is not CEO of bitcoin. There is no leadership team. There are devs that decide to work on things. They can coordinate and plan what they want to do but there is not guarantee that will be adopted by node runners.

I know, its VERY hard to come from every other project that has a creator that is active or a company that owns it and understand that bitcoin is different. Bitcoin is a very different animal. It has no product manager. No owner. No architect.

There is project that does though. Actually many.

Ethereum

146 sats \ 1 reply \ @schmidty OP 5 Nov

I'd agree on any sort of formal roadmap.

I hope that people can use those sources of information I pointed to, to come to their own conclusions.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @kepford 5 Nov

Yeah, totally

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @anon 14h

There is no leadership team. There are devs that decide to work on things.

This used to be, but I am afraid is changing :(

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @adlai 9h

Firstly, thank you for gathering all those resources!

I think roadmaps are more common in projects where there's a management hierarchy above the programmers, who don't do any of the programming themselves, and use them for communicating progress and expectations among others who are interested in progress although lack the technical understanding to read commits themselves.

In Bitcoin there are lots of non-technical folks interested, although there really isn't any official management layer between them and the programmers. It's a difficult situation because you could argue that developers are slowed down by the need to interface with non-technical folks themselves, although I think that's also important because it means the developers get a direct understanding of what the community thinks, and what the community does and doesn't understand. There is also the possibility that non-technical folks get interested in the details and improve their code literacy, although I imagine that demographic will always remain a minority.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @schmidty OP 4h

I think when people are asking for a roadmap, they are really just asking for some more visibility in to whats going on. In the case of Bitcoin Core, there is actually a ton of visibility (see my OP), but what is really missing is translating that transparent activity into something understandable by less-technical folks.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @vd 12h

A project roadmap implies centralized governance.

"Hey, adoption is increasing, this is multi trillion fiat junks, governments and corporations are looking into Bitcoin. You have to change your ways."

Hmm!?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @schmidty OP 4h

Good thing there is no roadmap! See the OP