The future of the Bitcoin Core GUI

The discussion begins with an appreciation for choices and competition within software development, particularly focusing on the graphical user interface (GUI) of a project, which is suggested to be marked as being in "maintenance mode." This label would accurately reflect its stagnation in terms of not receiving new features and provide users with a clear understanding of its status. It's implied that this approach allows for transparency and encourages community involvement, offering an opportunity for contributors to enhance the GUI to a state where it could potentially shed the "maintenance mode" tag or face deprecation based on community response and involvement.

The conversation then transitions into specific suggestions regarding the future of the GUI. One point raised concerns moving past the sunk-cost fallacy associated with an update to QML, which is no longer seen as a goal for the core project, suggesting a pivot away from this endeavor while still leaving room for independent development by interested parties. Another proposal involves decoupling the GUI from the core system by releasing it as a separate process that communicates through an inter-process communication (IPC) or remote procedure call (RPC) interface, which would facilitate flexibility and reduce tight coupling with Bitcoin Core's main functionality.

Finally, there's contemplation over the idea of splitting the GUI into its own standalone project with a separate release schedule. This move could result in relinquishing direct quality control, positioning the GUI as one option among many available to users. Such decentralization of the GUI development might democratize development but raises questions about maintaining quality standards and coherence within the broader ecosystem of the project.