Paul Sztorc Announces eCash Bitcoin Hard Fork in 2026

Paul Sztorc, CEO of LayerTwo Labs and a longtime Bitcoin developer, announced plans this week for eCash, a hard fork of Bitcoin set to launch at the end of August 2026 around block 964,000.

The project will copy Bitcoin's transaction history to create a new blockchain, granting existing BTC holders an equivalent amount of eCash on a 1:1 basis at the fork height. For instance, someone holding 4.19 BTC would receive 4.19 eCash, which they could sell, hold or ignore. The eCash base layer mirrors Bitcoin Core, using the SHA256d mining algorithm with a one-time difficulty reset at launch. It will activate BIP300 and BIP301 through a soft fork mechanism known as CUSF, enabling Drivechain sidechains. Seven sidechains are in development, including Truthcoin for prediction markets, CoinShift as a decentralized exchange, BitNames for identity, BitAssets for nonfungible tokens and Photon for quantum resistance.

A key element fueling debate involves coins linked to the Patoshi mining pattern, estimated at around 1.1 million BTC and widely attributed to Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto. These early, dormant coins have not moved in over a decade. Sztorc plans to reassign fewer...