Bitcoin Community Outraged Over Proposed eCash Hard Fork

A long-time Bitcoin developer, Paul Sztorc, has unveiled a proposal for a 2026 hard fork, dubbed eCash, which aims to create a separate version of the Bitcoin blockchain. The plan involves giving existing bitcoin holders equivalent tokens in the new network for free. However, the community is criticizing the funding part, which involves reassigning coins linked to Bitcoin's missing founder, Satoshi Nakamoto. A hard fork can be thought of as a railway line splitting into two, where trains start from the same station but eventually reach different destinations. When a group of developers cannot reach consensus on a proposed change to Bitcoin's code, they copy the existing blockchain and launch it as a separate chain. The proposed hard fork will create a new chain called eCash with native eCash tokens. Sztorc's plan includes the addition of Drivechains, a scaling architecture that allows seamless movement of BTC between the main chain and sidechains without changing Bitcoin's base layer. The new chain will be a near-copy of Bitcoin's existing blockchain, with the critical addition of Drivechains. The community is concerned about the precedent set by reassigning Satoshi coins, with some calling it theft. The plan has been met with negative responses from industry experts, who argue that it could eventually be a risk to everyone's BTC holdings.