A Proposal, Not a Heist: Unpacking the Bitcoin Plan to Reassign Satoshi-Linked Coins

Paul Sztorc, CEO of LayerTwo Labs, insists that he is not attempting to move Satoshi Nakamoto's bitcoin. However, his proposed eCash fork has sparked controversy due to its plan to allocate 600,000 eCash to Satoshi's addresses and redirect the remaining 500,000 eCash to investors. The roughly 1.1 million BTC attributed to Satoshi's dormant addresses would normally receive an equivalent balance on the forked network, but Sztorc's plan has raised concerns about property rights and the potential for setting a bad precedent. The dispute has turned into a fight over property rights, with some arguing that any proposal that seeks to evolve or improve Bitcoin by violating the property rights of its creator is a serious ethical misstep. The timing of the proposal has also made the fight sharper, as Bitcoiners have recently been debating proposals to freeze or restrict old quantum-vulnerable coins, including those believed to belong to Satoshi. The eCash fight is landing in a market already primed to treat any intervention around Satoshi-linked coins as radioactive, with some arguing that even proposals framed as protective measures risk damaging Bitcoin's core monetary promise. Sztorc has previously pushed for the adoption of Drivechains, a proposal that would allow developers to add sidechains to Bitcoin, but the Bitcoin Core community has not agreed to adopt it. The eCash fork now functions as both an exit plan and a pressure tactic, with Sztorc stating that he would call it off if Bitcoin activates the Drivechains proposals before August. The proposal has raised questions about whether a fork can claim Bitcoin's moral inheritance while rewriting the most famous untouched balance on the copied chain.