Charles Hoskinson Claims Bitcoin's Quantum Solution is a Hard Fork that Cannot Rescue Satoshi's Coins

Earlier this week, Bitcoin's core developers suggested freezing 8 million coins to protect against quantum attacks. However, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, believes this approach will not save Satoshi Nakamoto's coins. In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Hoskinson stated that Bitcoin's proposed defense against quantum computers is both technically incorrect and structurally incapable of safeguarding the network's oldest coins, which include the roughly 1 million bitcoin attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. According to Hoskinson, the proposal, BIP-361, is being misrepresented as a soft fork when it would actually require a hard fork due to its impact on existing signature schemes. This distinction is crucial as Bitcoin's development culture has historically opposed hard forks, viewing them as a violation of the network's immutability. BIP-361 proposes that users with frozen quantum-vulnerable funds could reclaim them by constructing a zero-knowledge proof tied to their BIP-39 seed phrase. However, Hoskinson argues that this approach will not work for approximately 1.7 million bitcoin that predate BIP-39's introduction in 2013, including the roughly 1 million coins associated with Satoshi's early mining activity. These early coins were generated using a different key derivation method and would remain permanently frozen if the proposal passes in its current form. Jameson Lopp, the core developer who co-authored BIP-361, has expressed his dislike for the proposal, describing it as a contingency plan rather than a finalized specification. Hoskinson's criticism extends beyond the technical details, arguing that Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance hinders the network's ability to resolve tradeoffs through a structured process.