On-chain investigator Tyler has put a spotlight on a controversial Bitcoin hard-fork proposal—raising fresh questions about the fate of Satoshi Nakamoto’s BTC stash and sparking a wider community debate.
What’s being proposed
- Paul Sztorc, founder of LayerTwo Labs, has unveiled a planned Bitcoin hard fork called “eCash,” which he says will launch this August.
- Sztorc describes eCash as a near-copy of Bitcoin Core with SHA256d mining. He says the chain will change seed nodes, the network name and magic bytes, and that forks will be implemented via a one-time difficulty reset to its minimum value. (Sztorc also warned that mining could be “very difficult at the beginning.”)
- The proposal includes a coin-split mechanism: BTC holders would receive an equivalent balance on eCash. Sztorc says transactions will be replayed initially and that the team will provide a coin-splitter tool to help users separate their balances across chains.
Why the community is worried
- Tyler warned on X that Satoshi’s BTC—commonly estimated at about 1.1 million BTC—could be moved within a week of the proposed hard fork, a claim that amplified fears about the security of dormant, high-profile addresses.
- Crypto educator DBCrypto suggested the fork might be a ploy to gain access to Satoshi’s coins, criticizing supporters for what he framed as an attack on users’ privacy and control.
Sztorc’s response
- Sztorc has pushed back, saying LayerTwo Labs is not trying to take any of Satoshi’s coins. He proposed “gifting” the BTC creator 600,000 eCash (rather than replicating the alleged 1.1 million BTC balance) and emphasized that BTC balances on the original Bitcoin chain would remain untouched because eCash does not have the Bitcoin software or private keys necessary to move those coins.
- He explained the mechanics briefly: eCash balances would move in step when a holder transacts on BTC (reflecting the intended replay behavior), but selling eCash would not replay on the Bitcoin network.
Technical and practical implications
- The proposal’s approach—replaying transactions initially and offering a coin-splitter—aims to give BTC holders advanced notice and tools to manage duplicated balances. Sztorc frames eCash as a “permanent, sustainable fix” for what he sees as Bitcoin’s problems.
- Critics remain concerned about replay risks, privacy, and potential unintended consequences for dormant addresses, including those linked to Satoshi.
Market snapshot
- At the time of writing, BTC was trading around $77,000, up in the last 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap.
Bottom line
Sztorc’s eCash proposal has stirred a debate that mixes technical details (difficulty reset, replay behavior, coin-splitters) with broader security and ethical questions about how forks interact with historic, dormant BTC holdings. The community will be watching closely as August approaches and as more implementation details—and safeguards—are disclosed.
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