Cardano co-founder Hoskinson says Bitcoin could lose top spot if governance fails quantum test

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson got his start in crypto through Bitcoin 15 years ago. Now he says that a possible quantum-computing threat could test Bitcoin’s ability to coordinate upgrades and ultimately cost BTC its position as the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

At the same time, he argues Cardano’s formal onchain governance and ability to enact upgrades make it better equipped to respond to existential technical threats.

"The issue with Bitcoin is it’s frozen in time. It’s very difficult to change anything," Hoskinson told The Starting Block on Friday. He said early frustration with Bitcoin’s inflexibility helped motivate the creation of Ethereum. Hoskinson was one of Ethereum’s original co-founders alongside Vitalik Buterin.

Hoskinson's comments fed into a broader argument that Cardano preserves Bitcoin’s founding principles while remaining adaptable.

"Cardano is, in many ways, a spiritual successor [to Bitcoin]. It reflects correcting a lot of things that I think that Satoshi couldn’t get around to because of expertise or time but was directionally moving there," he said.

Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain co-founded by Hoskinson and positioned somewhere between Bitcoin’s monetary model and Ethereum’s programmable infrastructure. Cardano (ADA) is a top 20 cryptocurrency with a market cap over $6 billion, according to The Block's Price Page.

Bitcoin's quantum threat

With quantum computing’s potential threat to Bitcoin increasingly on the industry’s mind, Hoskinson said advances in the technology pose a genuine risk to the roughly $1.3 trillion cryptocurrency and could ultimately cost BTC its top ranking.

"What made Bitcoin so strong is it survived external threats ... including the loss of its founder," said Hoskinson. "Quantum computers are yet another threat ... if Bitcoin's governance is such that it's impossible to actually make meaningful progress, or they compromise the core reason to use Bitcoin, I don't think Bitcoin's going to stay the number one cryptocurrency."

Cardano addresses issues related to BTC that Satoshi was unable to solve, according to Hoskinson.

"With Cardano, we’re going to have to make some decisions about what to do with quantum-vulnerable infrastructure. And if there needs to be a migration, we can have a vote, and then there could be an onchain function to do that," said Hoskinson.

Hoskinson also said Cardano is preparing for what he described as its biggest upgrade to date. "We’re going to be 60 times faster. So it’s a huge, huge lift, and we can’t just be asleep at the wheel for that," he said.