Keyholder Procedures

Bitcoin Commons uses cryptographic keyholders (maintainers) to sign governance decisions. This section describes procedures for keyholders.

Maintainer Responsibilities

Maintainers are responsible for:

Reviewing Changes: Understanding the impact of proposed changes
Signing Decisions: Cryptographically signing approved changes
Maintaining Keys: Securely storing and managing cryptographic keys
Following Procedures: Adhering to governance processes and review periods

Signing Process

Review PR: Understand the change and its impact
Generate Signature: Use blvm-sign from blvm-sdk
Post Signature: Comment /governance-sign <signature> on PR
Governance App Verifies: Cryptographically verifies signature
Status Check Updates: Shows signature count progress

Key Management

Key Generation

blvm-keygen --output maintainer.key --format pem

Key Storage

Development: Test keys can be stored locally
Production: Keys should be stored in HSMs (Hardware Security Modules)
Backup: Secure backup procedures required

Key Rotation

Keys can be rotated through the governance process. See MAINTAINER_GUIDE.md for detailed procedures.

Emergency Keyholders

Emergency keyholders (5-of-7) can activate emergency mode for critical situations:

Activation: 5-of-7 emergency keyholders required
Duration: Maximum 90 days
Review Periods: Reduced to 30 days during emergency
Signature Thresholds: Unchanged

Release Pipeline Gate Strength

Release Pipeline Gate Strength Figure: Gate strength across the release pipeline. Each gate requires specific signatures and review periods based on the change tier.

For detailed maintainer procedures, see MAINTAINER_GUIDE.md.

BLVM Documentation