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Long-time Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc has announced plans to hard fork Bitcoin into a new chain called eCash, set to launch in August at block height 964,000.
Every BTC holder at the time of the fork would automatically receive an equal amount of eCash on the new chain. Sztorc said a coin-splitter tool will be released to help users separate their holdings cleanly.
The new chain would run on a near-copy of Bitcoin Core software using the same SHA-256 hashing algorithm. Sztorc also plans to set a reduced initial mining difficulty and include seven layer-2 scaling networks called Drivechains, a technology he first proposed in 2015 and has been trying to merge into Bitcoin Core ever since.
While the technical approach has drawn attention, the funding mechanism has sparked controversy within the Bitcoin community. Sztorc intends to manually reassign “fewer than half” of Satoshi Nakamoto’s estimated 1.1 million BTC—worth nearly $40 billion at current prices—to investors in the new chain before the fork goes live. Sztorc said the goal is to provide early contributors with a tangible incentive and build momentum ahead of launch.
“This will no doubt be a controversial decision,” Sztorc wrote on X, “but I think it is necessary, and in fact, ideal.”
Critics have argued that the plan amounts to taking coins associated with Satoshi, even if the action occurs on a forked network. Podcaster and Bitcoin advocate Peter McCormack called the proposal “theft and disrespectful,” adding that eCash is already a name used in the Lightning-adjacent payments space. Critic “PakoVM” predicted the project would collapse within two or three years.
Others warned that touching Satoshi’s coins could set a precedent for future actions involving dormant addresses. Josh Ellithorpe, chief technology officer at Pixelated Ink, wrote that the move shows the team “can and will steal coins,” adding that “now it’s Satoshi, but it could be anyone later.”
Sztorc has since posted a second version of the proposal that does not involve Satoshi’s coins, though the final structure has not been confirmed. As of now, no miners, exchanges, or major ecosystem participants have signaled they will support the chain.
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