Cardano Founder Disputes Bitcoin's Quantum Fix, Claims It Won't Save Satoshi's Coins

Recently, Bitcoin's core developers proposed a plan to protect the network from quantum attacks by freezing 8 million coins. However, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson believes this plan is flawed and cannot save the coins belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto, the network's pseudonymous creator. In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Hoskinson argued that the proposed solution, known as BIP-361, is technically incorrect and structurally incapable of protecting the network's oldest coins. He claims that BIP-361 requires a hard fork, which would invalidate existing signature schemes, rather than a soft fork as proposed. This distinction is significant, as Bitcoin's development culture has historically opposed hard forks. Hoskinson also argued that the proposed solution's zero-knowledge recovery plan cannot rescue approximately 1.7 million bitcoin that predate 2013, including those associated with Satoshi's early mining activity, because they were generated using a different key derivation method. If the proposal passes in its current form, those coins would remain permanently frozen. Jameson Lopp, the core developer who co-authored BIP-361, has acknowledged that the proposal is not ideal and hopes it never needs 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.