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

Earlier this week, Bitcoin's core developers proposed a plan to freeze 8 million coins to safeguard against quantum attacks. However, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, expressed concerns that this plan is technically flawed and cannot protect the network's oldest coins, including those attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. According to Hoskinson, the proposed solution, BIP-361, is mislabeled as a soft fork and would actually require a hard fork, which is a change that invalidates existing signature schemes. Hoskinson argued that this approach is problematic because it would leave approximately 1.7 million pre-2013 bitcoin, including those owned by Satoshi, permanently frozen. The Cardano founder also criticized Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance, which he believes hinders the network's ability to resolve tradeoffs through a structured process. Instead, contentious upgrades are often negotiated through developer mailing lists and social pressure, which can lead to conflicts and inefficiencies.