Charles Hoskinson Claims Bitcoin's Quantum Solution is a Hard Fork that Fails to Rescue Satoshi's Coins

Bitcoin developers have proposed a solution to protect against quantum attacks by freezing 8 million coins. However, Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, believes this approach is flawed and cannot safeguard the coins belonging to Satoshi Nakamoto, the network's pseudonymous creator. In a recent video, Hoskinson stated that the proposed solution, BIP-361, is mislabeled as a soft fork and would actually require a hard fork, as it would invalidate existing signature schemes. He argued that this distinction is crucial, given Bitcoin's historical opposition to hard forks. Furthermore, Hoskinson claimed that the proposed zero-knowledge recovery plan is insufficient to rescue approximately 1.7 million bitcoins that predate the introduction of BIP-39 in 2013, including those associated with Satoshi's early mining activity. These 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 behind BIP-361, has acknowledged the proposal's limitations, describing it as a rough contingency plan rather than a finalized specification. Hoskinson's critique extends beyond the technical aspects, highlighting the need for formal on-chain governance to resolve tradeoffs and contentious upgrades in a structured manner.