Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc announced plans for a hard fork of eCash in August.

CoinFeed reported on April 25th that Bitcoin developer Paul Sztorc announced on April 24th plans to implement a hard fork of the Bitcoin network in August, launching a new chain, eCash. This fork will adopt a replica of the BTC Core client and the SHA-256 algorithm, reducing initial mining difficulty. Bitcoin holders can exchange their Bitcoin for eCash at a 1:1 ratio. It will also add seven Layer 2 scaling networks, known as "drivechains," to increase transaction throughput and support optional on-chain privacy features. Sztorc emphasized that eCash differs from Bitcoin Cash (BCH) in 2017, which "manually" redistributed approximately 1.1 million BTC from Satoshi Nakamoto to early investors, calling it a "permanent solution to the Bitcoin problem."