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+
+Bitcoin integration/staging tree
+
+Development process
+===================
+
+Developers work in their own trees, then submit pull requests when
+they think their feature or bug fix is ready.
+
+If it is a simple/trivial/non-controversial change, then one of the
+bitcoin development team members simply pulls it.
+
+If it is a more complicated or potentially controversial
+change, then the patch submitter will be asked to start a
+discussion (if they haven't already) on the mailing list:
+http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_name=bitcoin-development
+
+The patch will be accepted if there is broad consensus that it is a
+good thing.  Developers should expect to rework and resubmit patches
+if they don't match the project's coding conventions (see coding.txt)
+or are controversial.
+
+The master branch is regularly built and tested, but is not guaranteed
+to be completely stable. Tags are regularly created to indicate new
+official, stable release versions of Bitcoin. If you would like to
+help test the Bitcoin core, please contact QA@BitcoinTesting.org.
+
+Feature branches are created when there are major new features being
+worked on by several people.
+
+From time to time a pull request will become outdated. If this occurs, and
+the pull is no longer automatically mergeable; a comment on the pull will
+be used to issue a warning of closure. The pull will be closed 15 days
+after the warning if action is not taken by the author. Pull requests closed
+in this manner will have their corresponding issue labeled 'stagnant'.
+
+Issues with no commits will be given a similar warning, and closed after
+15 days from their last activity. Issues closed in this manner will be 
+labeled 'stale'. 
+
+Requests to reopen closed pull requests and/or issues can be submitted to 
+QA@BitcoinTesting.org. 
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