Bitcoin Developer Plans to ‘Reassign’ Coins Linked to Satoshi Nakamoto in Hard Fork – Decrypt

Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc has proposed a tough fork that will reassign a few of the earliest cash on the unique crypto community—extensively believed to belong to pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto—to buyers in a brand new mission.

The co-founder and CEO of LayerTwo Labs, Sztorc introduced the mission, referred to as eCash, on Friday. The plan would “manually reassign” about 500,000 of the roughly 1.1 million Bitcoin related to the so-called “Patoshi sample,” a mining sample some researchers consider is linked to Nakamoto.

“This may little doubt be a controversial choice,” Sztorc wrote on X. “However I believe it’s obligatory, and in reality, superb.”

Sztorc wouldn’t (and couldn’t) transfer the Satoshi-linked cash on Bitcoin itself. As an alternative, eCash would create a separate blockchain that copies Bitcoin’s historical past and adjustments the ledger to assign all however 600K of these cash to new house owners. Present on-chain Bitcoin (BTC) holders would additionally obtain cash on the eCash community equal to their holdings on the time of the fork.

“Your cash will break up. For instance, when you’ve got 4.19 BTC, then you’re going to get 4.19 eCash,” he wrote on X. “Chances are you’ll promote your eCash—or preserve it. Or ignore it!”

Named after the unique eCash, cryptographer David Chaum’s early digital cash mission, the brand new fork is a callback to one in every of crypto’s earliest concepts. The unique eCash used cryptographic “blind signatures” to let folks make personal digital funds, however DigiCash, Chaum’s firm creating the mission, filed for chapter in 1998 after the mission failed to realize widespread adoption.

“It’s not Satoshi’s Bitcoin, it’s simply [unspent transaction outputs] which might be presumed to belong to Satoshi which might be being cloned and modified onto a totally completely different community,” Bitcoin developer and Casa Chief Safety Officer Jameson Lopp advised Decrypt.



Lopp dismissed the transfer as a publicity stunt, calling it “intelligent outrage advertising.”

In accordance with Loop, such a reassignment might solely occur on Bitcoin itself if the broader community of builders agreed to undertake the fork.

“If the complete Bitcoin ecosystem determined emigrate to a tough fork that reassigned Satoshi’s cash to keys that different folks managed, then certain, it’s theoretically attainable,” Lopp mentioned.

Sztorc has mentioned the reassignment would permit early supporters to put money into the mission earlier than its deliberate August launch. He has argued the transfer is required to maintain the chain from changing into a “zombie” mission with out sufficient capital or contributors.

Bitcoin has break up earlier than. Bitcoin Money launched in 2017 after a dispute over scaling, splitting off and creating a brand new community. Ethereum break up in 2016 after the DAO hack, with most community backers selecting to reverse the transactions with stolen funds whereas Ethereum Traditional stored the unique chain. Each Bitcoin Money (BCH) and Ethereum Traditional (ETC) have been far much less worthwhile and standard than their respective authentic cash and networks.

The eCash web site says the chain is anticipated to launch in about 119 days and can embody “Drivechain” scaling community assist, with seven sidechains in improvement.

“The upside is big: world scalability, privateness, competitors, speedy enchancment, and adoption,” Sztorc wrote on the eCash web site. “Actually, it could be a matter of life or loss of life for Bitcoin. The draw back is small: some drama, plus each Bitcoiner will get some free cash.”

Sztorc didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark by Decrypt.