Cardano Founder Claims Bitcoin's Quantum Computing Solution is a Hard Fork That Won't Protect Satoshi's Holdings

Following a proposal by Bitcoin's core developers to freeze 8 million coins to counter quantum attacks, Cardano's Charles Hoskinson expressed concerns that this move would still not be able to protect the coins belonging to the network's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, in a video posted on his YouTube channel. Hoskinson stated that the proposed solution, BIP-361, is technically and structurally flawed, and would require a hard fork, which is not feasible given Bitcoin's historical opposition to such forks. Furthermore, he argued that the proposal's reliance on zero-knowledge proofs tied to BIP-39 seed phrases would not be able to rescue the roughly 1.7 million Bitcoins that predate the introduction of BIP-39 in 2013, including the 1 million coins attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. This is because these early coins were generated using a different key derivation method, making it impossible for their owners to provide the necessary cryptographic proof to reclaim them. Hoskinson's criticism extends beyond the technical aspects, highlighting the lack of formal on-chain governance in Bitcoin, which hinders the network's ability to resolve such tradeoffs through a structured process.