Charles Hoskinson Claims Bitcoin's Quantum Solution is a Hard Fork That Fails to Protect Satoshi's Coins

Earlier this week, Bitcoin's core developers proposed a plan to safeguard 8 million coins against quantum attacks. However, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, believes this plan is insufficient to protect the coins owned by Satoshi Nakamoto, the network's pseudonymous creator, as stated in a recent YouTube video. Hoskinson argues that the proposed defense mechanism, BIP-361, is technically flawed and mislabeled as a soft fork, as it would require a hard fork due to its impact on existing signature schemes. He emphasizes that the distinction between a soft fork and a hard fork is crucial, given Bitcoin's historical opposition to hard forks, which are seen as a violation of the network's immutability. The BIP-361 proposal suggests using zero-knowledge proofs tied to BIP-39 seed phrases to reclaim frozen funds, but Hoskinson points out that this approach would not work for approximately 1.7 million bitcoins created before 2013, including those associated with Satoshi's early mining activities. These early coins were generated using a different key derivation method and would remain permanently frozen if the proposal is implemented. Jameson Lopp, a core developer and co-author of BIP-361, has expressed his own reservations about the proposal, describing it as a rough idea for a 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, leading to contentious upgrades being negotiated through mailing lists and social pressure.