Cardano Founder Criticizes Bitcoin's Quantum Solution as Insufficient to Protect Satoshi's Holdings

Recently, Bitcoin's core developers have put forth a proposal to freeze approximately 8 million coins in an effort to counter the threat posed by quantum computers. However, according to Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, this measure will not suffice to protect the coins belonging to the network's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto. In a video posted on his YouTube channel, Hoskinson stated that the proposed solution, BIP-361, is not only mislabeled as a soft fork but also lacks the capability to safeguard the network's oldest coins, including the roughly 1 million bitcoin attributed to Satoshi. He contended that BIP-361 would, in fact, necessitate a hard fork due to its invalidation of existing signature schemes that users currently rely on. This distinction is significant, given Bitcoin's historical aversion to hard forks, which are viewed as violations of the network's immutability. The BIP-361 proposal suggests that users with frozen funds could reclaim them by constructing a zero-knowledge proof tied to their BIP-39 seed phrase. Nevertheless, Hoskinson argued that this approach would be ineffective in rescuing approximately 1.7 million bitcoin that predate the introduction of BIP-39 in 2013, including those associated with Satoshi's early mining activity. These early coins were generated using a different key derivation method and would remain permanently frozen if the proposal passes in its current form. Jameson Lopp, the core developer who co-authored BIP-361, has acknowledged that the proposal is not ideal and hopes it will never need to be adopted. Hoskinson's critique 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.