Are Satoshi’s 600,000 BTC At Risk? Unveiling The Hard Fork That Targets Bitcoin

On-chain sleuth Tyler has drawn attention to a Bitcoin hard fork proposal amid the quantum threat to the Bitcoin network. This has raised concerns about what could happen to Satoshi Nakamoto’s BTC holdings, although the developer behind the proposal has assured that Satoshi’s coins will remain safe. 

Proposed Bitcoin Hard Fork Raises Concerns About Satoshi’s Holdings

In an X post, Tyler warned that Satoshi’s coins will likely be moved within a week of the proposed e-cash hard fork. Paul Sztorc, the founder of LayerTwo Labs, proposed a Bitcoin hard fork, which he called eCash, and revealed that it will drop this August. He explained that investor coins will be split, with these investors getting an equivalent of their BTC holdings in eCash.  

Sztorc further stated that their L1 Node is a near-copy of the Bitcoin core and is SHA256d mined. He also mentioned that forks will be via a one-time difficulty reset to its minimum value. As such, mining will be very difficult at the beginning. Meanwhile, the LayerTwo Labs founder revealed that they will change the seed nodes, the name, and the network magic. 

Sztorc also commented on how this Bitcoin hard fork will differ from the Bitcoin Cash hard fork. He noted that BTC holders are getting an advanced warning, and they plan to replay all transactions at first and also release a coin-splitter tool. The crypto founder added that this is a permanent, sustainable fix for BTC’s problems. The proposal has notably raised concerns about what will happen to Satoshi’s BTC holdings. 

Crypto educator DBCrypto suggested that the proposed Bitcoin hard fork was a ploy to gain access to Satoshi’s coins. He also called out those who may be supporting the proposal, as it goes against having privacy to one’s coins. 

Satoshi’s Coins Will Remain Untouched

In another X post, Sztorc addressed concerns about what will happen to Satoshi’s Bitcoin holdings, stating that they are not taking any of his coins. He said that, instead, they will “gift” the BTC creator 600,000 eCash, rather than 1.1 million coins, which is what he currently holds in BTC. 

Sztorc noted that these coins are more than what Satoshi got from Litecoin, Ethereum, Solana, Tether, and other crypto projects. He reiterated that BTC balances are untouched by eCash as they lack the BTC software or private key to move these coins. Meanwhile, as to how it would work, these eCash coins will move whenever a holder moves their BTC. However, if they sell their eCash coins, then the transaction will not replay on the Bitcoin network. 

At the time of writing, the BTC price is trading at around $77,000, up in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinMarketCap.