Cardano Founder Disputes Effectiveness of Bitcoin's Quantum Computing Solution

Bitcoin developers have proposed a solution to protect the network from quantum attacks by freezing approximately 8 million coins. However, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, this solution is technically inaccurate and cannot safeguard the network's oldest coins, including the roughly 1 million bitcoin attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. Hoskinson believes that the proposed solution, known as BIP-361, is being mislabeled as a soft fork when it would actually require a hard fork, as it invalidates existing signature schemes. A hard fork is a significant change to the network's protocol that would render old software incompatible. The BIP-361 proposal suggests using zero-knowledge proofs tied to BIP-39 seed phrases to reclaim frozen funds, but Hoskinson argues this approach is ineffective for approximately 1.7 million bitcoin created before 2013, including Satoshi's coins, as they were generated using a different key derivation method. If implemented, these coins would remain permanently frozen. Jameson Lopp, co-author of BIP-361, has expressed reservations about the proposal, describing it as a contingency plan rather than a finalized solution. Hoskinson's criticism extends to Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance, which he believes hinders the network's ability to resolve tradeoffs through a structured process.