Paul Sztorc, the Bitcoin developer behind drivechains and Bitcoin Enchancment Proposal 300 (BIP-300), has introduced a brand new Bitcoin laborious fork known as eCash.
This challenge will apparently “be manually reassigning some” of Satoshi’s tokens on this fork to traders on this new challenge.
To justify this “controversial decision,” Sztorc has claimed that it was obligatory to stop the challenge from changing into a “zombie,” saying that with out this manner for “collaborators” to get entangled, it can find yourself failing.
Necessary: I’ve additionally devised a means that some can *make investments* on this hardfork, now, earlier than the fork-date, in August:
– Satoshi has 1.1M cash within the so known as “patoshi” sample.
– We shall be manually reassigning a few of these cash (fewer than half) to traders at the moment.
This can…
— Paul Sztorc (@Truthcoin) April 24, 2026
On his drivechain web site, Sztorc has claimed that he “never launched an actual altcoin,” a declare that should now be up to date
Drivechains
The announcement makes clear that the staff behind this intends to launch with drivechains, claiming it has “7 in developement [sic].”
Drivechains, which are supposed to facilitate Bitcoin scaling, are a kind of sidechain — chains with out native tokens that you may switch your mainnet bitcoin (BTC) to.
Sztorc has claimed that this expertise would facilitate a capability to onboard far more folks to Bitcoin and use BTC in methods extra acquainted to DeFi.
LayerTwoLabs, a agency that Sztorc is related to, lists the potential makes use of for drivechains:
- Good contracts
- Privateness-focused transactions
- Prompt, low-cost fee channels
- DeFi purposes
- Tokenization of property and securities
Earlier eCash tasks
Different tasks have beforehand used the identify “eCash,” together with, famously, David Chaum’s eCash, one of many first digital money tasks.
This challenge is commonly thought of one of many precursors to Bitcoin.
Moreover, it’s a reputation that’s beforehand been used for cryptocurrencies, together with, as acknowledged by Sztorc, “XEC” which launched in 2021.
At the moment, the web site for Sztorc’s new tasks lists a launch in roughly 119 days.
