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

Bitcoin's core developers have proposed a solution to defend against quantum attacks by freezing 8 million coins. However, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, believes this approach will not protect the coins belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto, the network's pseudonymous creator. According to Hoskinson, the proposed defense, BIP-361, is technically flawed and would require a hard fork, which is not feasible due to Bitcoin's development culture. He argues that the proposal's authors are misrepresenting it as a soft fork, which would not invalidate existing signature schemes. Hoskinson claims that the plan to use zero-knowledge proofs tied to BIP-39 seed phrases will not work for approximately 1.7 million bitcoins that predate BIP-39's introduction in 2013, including those associated with Satoshi's early mining activity. These coins were generated using a different key derivation method and would remain permanently frozen if the proposal passes in its current form. Jameson Lopp, the core developer who co-authored BIP-361, has expressed his reservations about the proposal, describing it as a rough idea rather than a finalized specification. Hoskinson's critique extends beyond the technical details, arguing that Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance hinders the network's ability to resolve tradeoffs through a structured process.