Long-time Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc has formally proposed a hard fork of Bitcoin scheduled for August 2026, announcing plans to launch a separate chain called eCash that would grant existing BTC holders equivalent tokens at no cost. The supporting evidence appears in the cited X post.
The proposal, targeting Bitcoin block height 964,000, also includes a funding mechanism that would reallocate coins widely believed to belong to Bitcoin’s pseudonymous founder, Satoshi Nakamoto.
The community response has been swift and hostile. Critics are framing the Satoshi coin reallocation not as a technical decision but as outright theft, and the backlash is intensifying across developer forums and social media.
What Sztorc Is Actually Proposing
Sztorc has spent over a decade pushing for Drivechains, a scaling architecture he first outlined in 2015 on his Truthcoin blog. Drivechains allow Bitcoin to run sidechains in a way that proponents argue preserves decentralization while expanding functionality. Because consensus for adding Drivechains to Bitcoin’s main chain has never materialized, Sztorc is now bypassing that process entirely with a fork.
Under the plan, holders receive eCash tokens at a one-to-one ratio with their BTC balance at the moment of the split. “Hold 4.19 BTC at the time of the fork, get 4.19 eCash,” Sztorc wrote on X. “You can sell it, keep it, or ignore it entirely.” A coin-splitter tool is also planned so holders can clearly separate their BTC from newly issued eCash after the fork activates.
The new chain would be a near-copy of Bitcoin’s existing blockchain up to the split, then diverge with Drivechains as the defining upgrade. Sztorc frames this as giving the market a live test of Drivechain technology without requiring Bitcoin’s core developers to approve anything.
The Satoshi Coin Controversy
The element drawing the sharpest criticism is Sztorc’s plan to redirect coins associated with Satoshi Nakamoto toward funding the new network. Satoshi’s holdings, estimated at roughly one million BTC mined during Bitcoin’s earliest days, have never moved and are widely treated by the community as effectively dormant or untouchable.
Reassigning those coins on the new chain, even if technically possible through a fork’s rule changes, crosses a line for many in the ecosystem. Peter McCormack publicly condemned the move, and developer Josh Ellithorpe argued the reallocation is ethically indefensible regardless of its technical legality on the forked chain.
The core objection is that Satoshi never consented to having those coins reassigned, and that no developer or group has the moral authority to make that call. Even critics who might otherwise support Drivechain scaling experiments are drawing a hard line at touching coins tied to Bitcoin’s creator.
Hard forks in Bitcoin’s history have always been contentious. The 2017 Bitcoin Cash split over block size limits created lasting divisions, and BCH never captured significant market share relative to BTC.
Sztorc’s proposal faces an even steeper credibility climb given the Satoshi coin element, which has unified otherwise fragmented factions of the community against it.
Whether eCash attracts meaningful developer support or exchange listings before August remains to be seen, but the current signal from the community suggests Sztorc is heading toward a heavily contested launch with limited institutional backing.
Not Financial Advice: This article is for informational purposes only. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk. Always conduct your own research before investing.
