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

Earlier this week, Bitcoin's core developers proposed a solution to defend against quantum attacks by freezing 8 million coins. However, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, this solution is still insufficient to safeguard the coins belonging to the network's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Hoskinson expressed his concerns that the proposed defense mechanism, BIP-361, is both technically flawed and incapable of protecting the network's oldest coins, including the roughly 1 million bitcoin attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. He further argued that BIP-361 would require a hard fork, as it would invalidate existing signature schemes that users are currently relying on. This distinction is crucial, given Bitcoin's historical opposition to hard forks, which are seen as a violation of the network's immutability. The proposal's authors have described it as a soft fork, a characterization that Hoskinson disputes. A key issue with BIP-361 is its reliance on zero-knowledge proofs tied to BIP-39 seed phrases, which would not be applicable to the approximately 1.7 million bitcoin that predate the introduction of BIP-39 in 2013, including the coins associated with Satoshi's early mining activity. These early 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 acknowledged that the proposal is not ideal and hopes it will never be necessary. 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 tradeoffs through a structured process, leading to contentious upgrades being negotiated through developer mailing lists and social pressure.