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

Recently, Bitcoin's core developers suggested freezing 8 million coins to counter quantum attacks. However, Cardano's founder, Charles Hoskinson, claims this approach is still insufficient to protect Satoshi Nakamoto's coins. Hoskinson stated that the proposed defense, BIP-361, is technically incorrect and unable to shield the network's oldest coins, including the roughly 1 million bitcoin linked to Satoshi. He asserts that BIP-361 is being misrepresented as a soft fork when it would actually require a hard fork, as it invalidates existing signature schemes that users rely on. This distinction is crucial, given Bitcoin's historical opposition to hard forks, which are seen as violating the network's immutability. The BIP-361 proposal suggests that users with frozen funds could reclaim them by creating a zero-knowledge proof tied to their BIP-39 seed phrase. However, Hoskinson argues that this method cannot recover approximately 1.7 million bitcoin that predate BIP-39's introduction in 2013, including the 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 is implemented in its current form, those coins would remain permanently frozen, even if their original owners attempt to migrate. Jameson Lopp, the core developer who co-authored BIP-361, has expressed his dislike for 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, forcing contentious upgrades to be negotiated through developer mailing lists and social pressure.