Charles Hoskinson Dismisses Bitcoin's Quantum Solution as Insufficient to Protect Satoshi's Coins

Recently, Bitcoin's core developers suggested a plan to freeze 8 million coins to protect against potential quantum attacks. However, according to a video posted by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, this approach would still fail to secure the network's earliest coins, including those owned by the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Hoskinson claims that the proposed solution, known as BIP-361, is both technically flawed and fundamentally incapable of protecting the oldest coins due to its incorrect classification as a soft fork. Instead, he argues that implementing this solution would require a hard fork, which would invalidate existing signature schemes. Furthermore, Hoskinson disputes the proposal's reliance on zero-knowledge proofs tied to BIP-39 seed phrases for reclaiming frozen funds, as this method cannot rescue approximately 1.7 million bitcoin created before 2013, including the 1 million coins associated with Satoshi's early mining activities. These early coins used a different key derivation method and would remain permanently frozen if the proposal is adopted in its current form. Jameson Lopp, co-author of BIP-361, has expressed his own reservations about the proposal, describing it as a rough contingency plan rather than a finalized specification. Hoskinson's critique extends beyond the technical aspects, arguing that Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance hinders the network's ability to resolve tradeoffs through a structured process, instead relying on developer negotiations and social pressure.