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"Download Bitcoin Core": https://bitcoin.org/en/download

"Download Bitcoin Core": https://bitcoincore.org/en/download/

I've been alternating between the two sites for years. I have no clue who to trust the most.

Why are there two? I mean, I get it, it's "decentralized", but we all know that in practice, we must trust some kind of central source to get the actual "reference implementation", which most of us do consider the official "and only" (for us) Bitcoin client.

There's something which psychologically prevents me from ever trusting one of the other Bitcoin wallets/clients. It seems to me that Bitcoin is so absurdly complicated that only one team can really get it right. I've spent endless hours over so many years just trying to understand it on a "user" level, but it's just an Enigma still in so many ways. I'm even nervous for the main Bitcoin Core team to make a mistake, by accident or through evil intentions.

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It looks like https://bitcoincore.org/ is the one run by the people who run the Github bitcoin/bitcoin project (the actual core developers) since it is the one listed on their Github page: https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin

If you want the absolute best source for the client directly from Bitcoin Core devs then I would use that site or their Github page for downloads.

https://bitcoin.org is still, however, a reliable source for information on Bitcoin Core, and maintained by the community. However, it is owned by someone who isn't tied to the Bitcoin Core project itself (as far as I'm aware): https://github.com/cobra-bitcoin

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https://bitcoin.org/en/bitcoin-core/ says

For the latest developments related to Bitcoin Core, be sure to visit the project’s official website.

(which is a link to https://bitcoincore.org/)

So there has been a deliberate separation between the Bitcoin.org project and the Bitcoin core project. This would make sense as Bitcoin.org provide information and links for many wallet programs and might wish to be seen as unbiased.

The latter is therefore the "one to trust" unless you know of some concrete reason otherwise.

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    The latter being Bitcoin core or Bitcoin.org? You should make that clearer.
    – Hashim Aziz
    Commented Jan 16, 2021 at 19:54
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https://bitcoincore.org is the official website of the Bitcoin Core project while https://bitcoin.org is a separate website and project which aims to provide general information about Bitcoin.

The reason that bitcoin.org still has a section dedicated to Bitcoin Core and provides downloads for Bitcoin Core is because it is the website where the Bitcoin client (back when there was only one) was distributed. Satoshi Nakamoto registered the domain bitcoin.org in order to have a website explaining Bitcoin and to host downloads for the Bitcoin client he had written. However since then, ownership of the domain has passed into the hands of people who are not active Bitcoin Core developers and the website has shifted focus to being a more generic Bitcoin website.

As part of this shift, the Bitcoin Core developers created bitcoincore.org and migrated all of the Bitcoin Core related content from bitcoin.org to bitcoincore.org. But for legacy reasons, there is still a Bitcoin Core section on bitcoin.org and binaries are still uploaded there. All of the relevant resources and links have been moved to bitcoincore.org. The only remaining connection between the Bitcoin Core project and bitcoin.org are the uploaded binaries.

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