Cardano Founder Disputes Bitcoin's Quantum Solution, Claims It Won't Rescue Satoshi's Coins

Recently, Bitcoin's core developers suggested freezing 8 million coins to safeguard against quantum attacks. However, according to a video posted by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, this solution is still insufficient to protect the network's oldest coins, including those attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. Hoskinson claims that the proposed defense, BIP-361, is technically flawed and structurally incapable of safeguarding the network's earliest coins due to its mislabeling as a soft fork when it would actually require a hard fork. He asserts that this approach would invalidate existing signature schemes, which are currently in use by users. Furthermore, Hoskinson argues that the proposal's zero-knowledge recovery plan is ineffective for approximately 1.7 million pre-2013 bitcoins, including those associated with Satoshi, as these coins were generated using a different key derivation method. If the proposal is implemented in its current form, these coins would remain permanently frozen, regardless of any attempts to migrate them. The core developer behind BIP-361, Jameson Lopp, has expressed his dislike for the proposal, describing it as a rough contingency plan rather than a finalized specification. Lopp argues that freezing dormant coins would be preferable to allowing a future quantum attacker to recover and dump them on the market. Hoskinson's criticism extends beyond the technical aspects, arguing that Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance hinders the network's ability to resolve these tradeoffs through a structured process, resulting in contentious upgrades being negotiated through developer mailing lists and social pressure.