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

Recently, Bitcoin's core developers proposed a plan to freeze approximately 8 million coins to shield the network from potential quantum attacks. However, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, expressed his skepticism in a video posted on his YouTube channel, stating that this plan is insufficient to safeguard the coins belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the network. Hoskinson criticized BIP-361, the proposal aimed at phasing out quantum-vulnerable bitcoin addresses, claiming it is mislabeled as a soft fork when, in reality, it would require a hard fork due to its invalidation of existing signature schemes. He emphasized that the distinction between a soft fork and a hard fork is crucial, as Bitcoin's development culture has traditionally opposed hard forks, viewing them as a violation of the network's immutability. The proposal suggests that users with frozen funds could recover them by creating a zero-knowledge proof tied to their BIP-39 seed phrase. Nonetheless, Hoskinson argued that this approach is ineffective for approximately 1.7 million bitcoin that predate the introduction of BIP-39 in 2013, including the roughly 1 million coins associated with Satoshi's early mining activity, as these coins were generated using a different key derivation method. If the proposal is implemented in its current form, these coins would remain permanently frozen, regardless of any attempts by their original owners to migrate them. Jameson Lopp, the core developer who co-authored BIP-361, acknowledged that the proposal is not ideal and hopes it will never be necessary. Hoskinson's critique extends beyond the technical aspects, emphasizing 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.