Cardano Founder Claims Bitcoin's Quantum Solution is a Hard Fork that Fails to Protect Satoshi's Coins

Bitcoin developers have proposed a plan to protect against quantum attacks by freezing 8 million coins. However, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, this plan is technically flawed and cannot safeguard the network's oldest coins, including the roughly 1 million bitcoin attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. Hoskinson argues that BIP-361, the proposal aimed at phasing out quantum-vulnerable bitcoin addresses, is mislabeled as a soft fork and would actually require a hard fork due to its impact on existing signature schemes. He claims that this approach would fail to rescue approximately 1.7 million bitcoin created before 2013, including Satoshi's coins, as they were generated using a different key derivation method. The proposal suggests using a zero-knowledge proof tied to the BIP-39 seed phrase to reclaim frozen funds, but Hoskinson believes this method is ineffective for the older coins. Jameson Lopp, the core developer behind BIP-361, has expressed his dislike for the proposal, describing it as a 'rough idea for a contingency plan.' Hoskinson's criticism extends beyond the technical aspects, highlighting Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance as a major issue in resolving these tradeoffs.