Satoshi’s Bitcoin in Danger? 1.1M BTC Stash Faces Seizure Risk in New Hard Fork

Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto’s 1.1 million BTC fate hangs in balance with the early “patoshi” mining pattern is back in the spotlight. Recent developer proposals and a new hard fork could lead to the possibility of reallocation, restriction or even freezing of those coins.

New Bitcoin Hard Fork Eyes Reassigning Satoshi’s BTC

LayerTwo Labs founder and CEO Paul Sztorc has announced a Bitcoin hard fork, “eCash,” which will go live in August 2025. He said users will receive matching balances on the new chain. “Your coins will split. For example, if you have 4.19 BTC, then you will get 4.19 eCash,” he wrote. Users can decide to sell, to hold or to discard the new coins, Sztorc added.

It all started with his proposal for the original investors. Sztorc said, “Satoshi has 1.1M coins in the so-called ‘patoshi’ pattern. We will be manually reassigning some of these coins (fewer than half) to investors today.”

He acknowledged the plan would be controversial. However, he said it was necessary to build momentum prior to launch. Per on-chain tracking crypto tools, Satoshi’s address holds 1.09 million BTC worth $85.12 billion at current market rates.

This led to some backlash from the Bitcoin community as BTC maxi who goes by the name “Tomer Strolight” offered criticism. On X, he wrote, “Satoshi didn’t pre-mine Bitcoin, but there’s nothing preventing Paul Sztorc from hardforking Bitcoin and seizing Satoshi’s coins as an insider equivalent to a pre-mine,” he said. he claimed.

Sztorc responded to this criticism and referred to a new version of the fork. “I have also put out a 2nd version, which does NOT seize Satoshi’s coins, by the way,” he replied. This means the actual form of the hard fork is yet not finalized and the community can be relieved as of now.

The Developer Proposal Against Quantum Threats

Meanwhile, a previous proposal is adding to the confusion. Another group of programmers and quantum computing specialists look to safeguard Bitcoin for the future. Their proposal aims to protect wallets that might be susceptible to quantum attacks.

The initiative would limit transactions from these wallets. Eventually, the plan could block them. BTC remaining in such wallets could be lost if not moved.

It has created a concern about old holdings. That includes the Bitcoin reserve tied to Satoshi, which has been untouched for many years. Some members of the community view the proposal as too radical.

They say it is not in the spirit of Bitcoin. The community added that it penalizes long term investors. Moreover, netizens believe that it could open the door to more intervention.

One of the authors, Jameson Lopp, said this was expected. He said he knows “folks don’t like it.” I don’t like it myself. I wrote it because I like the alternative even less,” Lopp added.