Bitcoin Developer Paul Sztorc Announces eCash Hard Fork of BTC

A hard fork copies Bitcoin’s existing ledger to create a new chain operating under different rules. LayerTwo Labs CEO Paul Sztorc has championed Drivechains since 2015. After BIP300 and BIP301 failed to gain adoption by Bitcoin Core, he turned to eCash as a test bed for scalability, privacy and quantum-resistant features, stirring controversy over immutability and property rights.

Sztorc announced on April 24, 2026, that eCash was scheduled to fork at block height 964,000 in August that year. BTC holders would receive the new coin on a 1:1 basis, and the network would connect to seven Drivechains. Of the new coins corresponding to about 1.1 million BTC held at Satoshi Nakamoto-linked addresses, 600,000 would remain at their original addresses while 500,000 would be reassigned to early investors. BTC on the original chain would be unaffected.