Cardano Founder Disputes Bitcoin's Quantum Computing Fix, Claims it Won't Protect Satoshi's Coins

Earlier this week, Bitcoin's core developers suggested freezing 8 million coins to protect against quantum attacks. However, Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano, believes this approach will not save the coins belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto, the network's pseudonymous creator, as stated in a video on his YouTube channel. Hoskinson claims that Bitcoin's proposed defense mechanism is both technically incorrect and structurally incapable of protecting the network's oldest coins, including the roughly 1 million bitcoin attributed to Satoshi. He asserts that the proposal, BIP-361, which aims to phase out quantum-vulnerable bitcoin addresses, is being misrepresented as a soft fork when it would actually require a hard fork, as it invalidates existing signature schemes. According to Hoskinson, this distinction is crucial, given Bitcoin's historical opposition to hard forks, which are seen as violations of the network's immutability. The proposal suggests that users with frozen funds could reclaim them by creating a zero-knowledge proof tied to their BIP-39 seed phrase. Nevertheless, Hoskinson argues that this approach will not rescue approximately 1.7 million bitcoin that predate BIP-39's introduction in 2013, including the roughly 1 million 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 expressed his dislike for the proposal, describing it as a rough idea for a contingency plan rather than a finalized specification. Hoskinson's criticism extends beyond the technical details, arguing that Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance hinders the network's ability to resolve tradeoffs through a structured process, forcing contentious upgrades to be negotiated through developer mailing lists and social pressure.