Charles Hoskinson Criticizes Bitcoin's Quantum Computing Fix, Claims It Won't Save Satoshi's Coins

Bitcoin developers have proposed a plan to protect against quantum attacks by freezing 8 million coins. However, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, claims this approach is technically flawed and cannot save the network's oldest coins, including those attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. According to Hoskinson, BIP-361 is mislabeled as a soft fork and would essentially require a hard fork, as it invalidates existing signature schemes. A hard fork would be necessary to implement this change, which is a significant departure from Bitcoin's traditional development culture. The proposal suggests using zero-knowledge proofs tied to BIP-39 seed phrases to reclaim frozen funds, but Hoskinson argues this method cannot recover approximately 1.7 million bitcoins created before 2013, including those 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. Hoskinson's critique extends beyond the technical aspects, highlighting Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance, which hinders the network's ability to resolve tradeoffs through a structured process.