Paul Sztorc Rejects Theft Claims Over Satoshi's 1.1M Bitcoin In August Fork

eCash founder Paul Sztorc rejected accusations of plotting to steal Satoshi Nakamoto's 1.1 million Bitcoin (BTC), calling the claims a misreading of the August hard fork.

Sztorc Pushes Back

In an X post Monday, Sztorc insisted the project does not touch Satoshi's actual coins. Instead, the new chain will gift the dormant founder 600,000 eCash tokens, while the remaining 500,000 fund early investors and developers.

The hard fork is scheduled for block height 964,000 in August. Every BTC holder will receive an equal amount of eCash on a 1:1 basis, with a coin-splitter tool released to keep balances separate.

Sztorc, who runs LayerTwo Labs, said the reassignment is needed to avoid a "zombie" launch with no funded contributors. The chain will activate Drivechains, his long-rejected scaling proposal known as BIP300/301.

Community Revolt

Critics see the funding plan as crossing a line. Bitcoin advocate Peter McCormack called it "theft and disrespectful," and Josh Ellithorpe, CTO at Pixelated Ink, warned the precedent could later be applied to any dormant wallet.

Early sentiment scans of the X thread show 80% to 85% of replies opposing the move.

Past Bitcoin forks tell a sobering story. Bitcoin Cash launched in 2017 with cheaper transactions but lost ground to the original chain. Bitcoin Gold faded after repeated 51% attacks, and Bitcoin SV never gained traction before major exchanges delisted it. None of those projects touched Satoshi's equivalent coins.

Alexey Bondarev is the Head of Content at Yellow.com, having reported on crypto for the last 10 years. He specializes in in-depth Research and Learn pieces, with a focus on analytical reporting, industry context, and the bigger forces shaping crypto, from the AI era and security technologies to fintech innovation. He believes that everything digital will imminently overcome everything analogue and is working hard to make that come true.