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

Bitcoin developers have proposed a solution to protect against quantum attacks by freezing 8 million coins. However, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, this solution is both technically incorrect and incapable of safeguarding the network's oldest coins, including those attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. He believes that the proposed solution, BIP-361, is being misrepresented as a soft fork when it would actually require a hard fork, as it would invalidate existing signature schemes. Hoskinson argues that this approach cannot recover approximately 1.7 million bitcoin that predate 2013, including those associated with Satoshi's early mining activity, as they were generated using a different key derivation method. The proposal suggests using a zero-knowledge proof tied to the BIP-39 seed phrase to reclaim frozen funds, but Hoskinson claims this method will not work for the older coins. Jameson Lopp, the core developer who co-authored BIP-361, has acknowledged that the proposal is not ideal and hopes it will not 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.