Charles Hoskinson Criticizes Bitcoin's Quantum Solution as Insufficient to Protect Satoshi's Holdings

Cardano's founder, Charles Hoskinson, has expressed his concerns regarding Bitcoin's proposed defense mechanism against quantum attacks, which involves freezing approximately 8 million coins. In a video, Hoskinson explained that this approach, outlined in BIP-361, is technically inadequate and would not be able to protect the network's earliest coins, including the roughly 1 million bitcoin attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. Hoskinson argues that BIP-361 is being misleadingly presented 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 soft and hard forks is crucial, as Bitcoin's development culture has traditionally opposed hard forks. Furthermore, Hoskinson pointed out that the proposal's suggested use of zero-knowledge proofs tied to BIP-39 seed phrases would be ineffective for recovering funds from pre-2013 coins, including those associated with Satoshi's early mining activities, as these coins were generated using a different key derivation method. This would result in approximately 1.7 million bitcoin remaining permanently frozen, regardless of any attempts to migrate them. Hoskinson also criticized Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance, which he believes hinders the network's ability to resolve tradeoffs through a structured process, leading to contentious upgrades being negotiated through informal channels.