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

Earlier this week, Bitcoin's core developers proposed a solution to defend against quantum attacks by freezing 8 million coins. However, according to a video posted by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, this solution is still insufficient to protect the network's oldest coins, including the roughly 1 million bitcoin attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. Hoskinson argued that the proposed defense, BIP-361, is both technically mislabeled and structurally incapable of safeguarding these coins. He claimed that BIP-361 would functionally require a hard fork because it invalidates existing signature schemes that users are actively relying on. The proposal suggests that users with frozen quantum-vulnerable funds could reclaim them by constructing a zero-knowledge proof tied to their BIP-39 seed phrase. Nevertheless, Hoskinson argued that this approach cannot rescue 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, which relied on a local key pool rather than a deterministic seed. If the proposal passes in its current form, those coins would remain permanently frozen regardless of whether their original owners ever attempt to migrate. Jameson Lopp, the core developer who co-authored BIP-361, acknowledged that he does not like the proposal and hopes it never needs to be adopted, describing it as a rough idea for a contingency plan. Hoskinson's critique extends beyond the technical details, arguing that Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance leaves the network unable to resolve these tradeoffs through a structured process.