Paul Sztorc, co-founder and CEO of LayerTwo Labs and a Bitcoin developer, has unveiled plans for eCash, a hard fork scheduled to launch in August 2026.
The plan’s treatment of coins linked to Satoshi Nakamoto has sparked backlash across X.
What Sztorc Proposed for the Bitcoin eCash Hardfork
In a post, Sztorc revealed that eCash’s L1 node will be a “near-copy of Bitcoin Core.” The chain will use SHA-256d mining with a one-time difficulty reset.
“I am helping create a **new Bitcoin Hardfork** — dropping this August, called ‘eCash’. Your coins will split. For example, if you have 4.19 BTC, then you will get 4.19 eCash. You may sell your eCash — or keep it. Or ignore it!” Sztorc wrote.
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The Layer 1 (L1) network will activate Sztorc’s BIP300 and BIP301 proposals via soft fork. Seven drivechains are already in development, including Truthcoin for prediction markets and CoinShift as a decentralized exchange (DEX).
Other L2s include BitNames for identity, BitAssets for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and Photon for quantum resistance. The team will also release a coin-splitter tool.
Sztorc framed eCash as a permanent fix, unlike the 2017 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) split, which focused on increasing the block size. A notable aspect involves the planned allocation of a portion of coins attributed to Satoshi Nakamoto.
“Satoshi has 1.1M coins in the so called patoshi pattern. We will be manually reassigning some of these coins (fewer than half) to investors today. This will no doubt be a controversial decision. But I think it is necessary, and in fact, ideal,” he added.
In a separate post, the developer clarified that the process does not involve taking any BTC linked to Satoshi Nakamoto. Instead, it would assign 600,000 newly created eCash tokens to Satoshi on the forked chain, less than the 1.1 million coins typically attributed to those holdings, but more than allocations seen in other networks.
“Our coins are not named BTC; they are named eCash. BTC balances are untouched by eCash. To move BTC, you always need BTC software + the BTC private key. We lack both.” he noted. “It is fun to virtue signal about property rights, I get it. But be careful who you listen to and who you get your information from — in the heat of the moment, it may not be reliable!”
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Community Calls Satoshi Coin Reassignment
Nonetheless, the plan has already drawn pushback from parts of the crypto community. Commenting on X, Caffè Satoshi urged “extreme caution when receiving this eCash.”
Others were more critical of the distribution model. Podcast host Peter McCormack argued that any attempt to take coins linked to Satoshi Nakamoto is both “theft” and “disrespectful.”
“Taking Satoshi’s coins is a major flaw in this. All the rest is great. Satoshi’s property being taken sets a horrible precedent that will kill your narrative,” another user added.
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Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin holdings have long been a source of philosophical tension within the Bitcoin community. Even in debates around potential quantum threats, opinions remain sharply divided.
Some argue the coins should be burned to mitigate future risks, while others oppose any intervention, maintaining that such actions would undermine Bitcoin’s core principles of decentralization and immutability.
