Charles Hoskinson Claims Bitcoin's Quantum Solution is a Hard Fork That Cannot Protect Satoshi's Coins

Earlier this week, Bitcoin's core developers proposed a plan to freeze 8 million coins in order to defend against quantum attacks. However, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, believes that this plan will not be able to save the coins belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the network. In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Hoskinson stated that Bitcoin's proposed defense against quantum computers is both technically incorrect and structurally unable to protect the network's oldest coins, including the approximately 1 million bitcoin attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto. He claimed that the proposal, BIP-361, which aims to phase out quantum-vulnerable bitcoin addresses, is being presented as a soft fork but would actually require a hard fork because it would invalidate existing signature schemes that users are currently relying on. Hoskinson argued that this approach cannot rescue the approximately 1.7 million bitcoin that were created before 2013, including the coins associated with Satoshi's early mining activity, because they were generated using a different key derivation method. If the proposal is passed in its current form, these coins would remain permanently frozen, regardless of whether their original owners attempt to migrate them. Jameson Lopp, the core developer who co-authored BIP-361, has acknowledged that he does not like the proposal and hopes it will never need to be adopted. Hoskinson's critique extends beyond the technical details, arguing that Bitcoin's lack of formal on-chain governance leaves the network unable to resolve these tradeoffs through a structured process.