Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc has announced the August launch of a hard fork, eCash.

BlockBeats News, April 25th. Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc announced that in August, the Bitcoin network will undergo a hard fork upgrade called "eCash." This upgrade aims to build a new competitive Layer1 network and 7 Layer2 scaling networks (Drivechains).

According to the disclosure, after the fork is completed, BTC holders will be able to exchange eCash at a 1:1 ratio. The new Layer1 node software will be based on the Bitcoin Core client, aiming for a "near-complete replication," and will continue to use the SHA-256 algorithm. It will also lower the initial mining difficulty to increase participation.

In addition, eCash will introduce 7 Layer2 scaling networks to increase transaction throughput and support optional on-chain privacy features.

Sztorc emphasized that this proposal is different from the 2017 Bitcoin Cash fork and stated that eCash aims to "address long-standing issues in Bitcoin." However, the community has shown a significant difference in reactions to this design.

One of the controversial points is that eCash plans to "manually reallocate" a portion of Satoshi Nakamoto's approximately 1.1 million BTC to early participants. This has sparked strong opposition from some Bitcoin supporters who believe that this action constitutes an infringement on the assets of the original chain.

This proposal has also attracted attention against the backdrop of the Bitcoin scaling debate, particularly regarding core issues such as privacy features, resistance to quantum computing, and the development path of the Lightning Network.