Charles Hoskinson Criticizes Bitcoin's Quantum Solution, Claims it Won't Protect Satoshi's Coins

This week, Bitcoin's core developers suggested freezing 8 million coins to safeguard against quantum attacks. However, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, believes this approach is insufficient to protect the network's oldest coins, including those attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. According to Hoskinson, the proposed solution, BIP-361, is technically flawed and would require a hard fork, which is not feasible due to Bitcoin's development culture. He also argues that the proposal's zero-knowledge recovery plan is ineffective for approximately 1.7 million pre-2013 bitcoins, including Satoshi's coins, as they were generated using a different key derivation method. Jameson Lopp, the co-author of BIP-361, has expressed his reservations about the proposal, describing it as a rough contingency plan rather than a finalized specification. Hoskinson's criticism 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.