LayerTwo CEO Proposes eCash Fork to Reassign Satoshi Coins

Paul Sztorc, co-founder and CEO of LayerTwo Labs, announced a proposal called eCash in late April and set an August launch date. The plan would not move coins on Bitcoin’s mainnet. Instead, eCash would create a separate blockchain that copies Bitcoin’s transaction history up to a chosen fork date and alters ownership for a subset of early, unspent outputs tied to the Patoshi mining pattern.

Under the proposal, the new chain would reassign about 500,000 of roughly 1.1 million coins identified by researchers as following the Patoshi pattern. Current bitcoin (BTC) holders would receive the same nominal balance on the eCash network at the moment of the fork: “For example, if you have 4.19 BTC, then you will get 4.19 eCash,” Sztorc wrote on X. He also posted that some investors could acquire stakes tied to the reassigned Patoshi-pattern outputs before the fork date.

Technically, eCash would clone Bitcoin’s set of unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) and modify ownership records for a targeted subset. Sztorc described the reassignment process as a manual change on the eCash ledger. He has argued the reassigned coins would supply working capital and help recruit developers and contributors to the new network.

Responses from other developers and security experts were critical. Jameson Lopp, chief security officer at Casa and a Bitcoin developer, dismissed the proposal as “clever outrage marketing” and emphasized that changing ownership on Bitcoin itself would require broad acceptance by miners, node operators and developers. Lopp noted the proposal would only affect the separate eCash network unless the wider Bitcoin ecosystem chose to adopt the altered chain.

The proposal builds on previous blockchain splits. Bitcoin Cash launched in 2017 after a dispute over network scaling, and Ethereum split in 2016 after a software intervention following the DAO hack, leaving Ethereum Classic as the original ledger. Both breakaway chains have remained less used and lower in market value than their original networks over time.

Sztorc named the project eCash in reference to David Chaum’s earlier work on electronic cash, which used cryptographic blind signatures. Chaum’s company DigiCash later filed for bankruptcy in 1998. The eCash project website says the chain will include Drivechain support and lists seven sidechains in development, and it projects an August launch date roughly 119 days after the announcement.

Critics warned that attempts to reassign early, unspent coins could provoke disputes over ownership and raise legal and ethical questions for participants in both networks. Sztorc did not immediately respond to requests for comment.