Charles Hoskinson

BIP 361: Welcome to ShitcoinLand, Bitcoin

In a fiery address from Colorado, Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson attacks Bitcoin’s resistance to change, centering his argument on BIP 361—a draft proposal to hard‑fork the network with post‑quantum cryptography. He cites a March 2026 analysis showing that roughly 34 % of all BTC (about 8 million coins) are stored in legacy public‑key formats vulnerable to a sufficiently powerful quantum computer. Hoskinson claims BIP 361 mislabels itself as a soft fork, when the protocol changes would actually require a hard fork, and that the proposal’s zero‑knowledge recovery mechanism only works for funds derived from BIP‑39 seed phrases, leaving about 1.7 million coins—including Satoshi’s holdings—irrecoverable. The video is peppered with stark language—“God has abandoned you,” “death cult,” and “you’ll lose Satoshi’s coins”—to underscore the perceived existential risk. He contrasts Bitcoin’s immutable governance with Cardano’s on‑chain voting system, arguing that only a coordinated hard fork could prevent a quantum‑driven theft that could dump 8‑10 % of the supply on markets. If the quantum threat materializes, the resulting loss of confidence could trigger massive price volatility and regulatory scrutiny. Hoskinson’s plea highlights a broader debate: whether Bitcoin’s ideological rigidity can accommodate critical security upgrades, or whether external pressure from institutional holders will force a hard fork, potentially reshaping the cryptocurrency landscape.