Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc, known for his work on drivechains and Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 300 (BIP-300), has announced a new Bitcoin hard fork called eCash.
The project will manually reassign some of Satoshi’s tokens—held in the so-called "patoshi" pattern—to investors in the new eCash fork. Sztorc justified this controversial decision, stating it was necessary to prevent the project from becoming a "zombie." Without a way for collaborators to engage, he argued, the project would ultimately fail.
"I've also devised a way that some can invest in this hardfork, now, before the fork-date, in August:– Satoshi has 1.1M coins in the so called 'patoshi' pattern.– We will be manually reassigning some of these coins (fewer than half) to investors today."
On his drivechain website, Sztorc previously claimed he had "never launched an actual altcoin," a statement now in need of revision.
Drivechains: The Backbone of eCash
The eCash project intends to launch with seven drivechains in development. Drivechains are sidechains designed to facilitate Bitcoin scaling by allowing users to transfer BTC to chains without native tokens. Sztorc has emphasized that this technology could onboard more users to Bitcoin and enable BTC use cases familiar to DeFi.
Potential Use Cases for Drivechains
- Smart contracts
- Privacy-focused transactions
- Instant, low-cost payment channels
- DeFi applications
- Tokenization of assets and securities
LayerTwoLabs, a firm associated with Sztorc, highlights these potential applications.
eCash: A Name with a History
The name "eCash" has been used in previous cryptocurrency projects, including David Chaum’s eCash, one of the earliest digital cash initiatives and a precursor to Bitcoin. Sztorc acknowledged that the name has also been used for cryptocurrencies like XEC, which launched in 2021.
Launch Timeline
Sztorc’s project website currently lists a launch in approximately 119 days from the announcement date.
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