Post
Topic
Board Bitcoin Discussion
Merits 5 from 2 users
Re: Quantum Computing and Satoshi's Bitcoins
by
d5000
on 09/07/2025, 03:22:25 UTC
⭐ Merited by vapourminer (4) ,Lucius (1)
The big question is:
When (or if) this becomes feasible, will the community consider any movement as valid? Or will there be a consensus that, in these cases, it is better to update the protocol and invalidate this type of "quantum theft"?
Or even: would it be better to simply let history take its course, even if that means seeing these BTC being moved?

There was just recently a discussion indeed, as Jameson Lopp has proposed a two-step strategy in a blog post:

1) upgrade the protocol to allow post quantum cryptography,
2) once the problem becomes real, establish a deadline until the coins can be moved to post quantum keys, and after the deadline invalidate all attempts to move coins with the "old" ECDSA signatures.

That step 1 eventually should happen, is the majority's opinion here. There was even a (poorly written) BIP draft recently for that, but the devs decided for now to wait for more maturity of post-quantum cryptography.

But I got the idea at least here in this forum, there is no consensus about step 2, which is your question.

My personal opinion is: offer the possibility to move coins to post-quantum addresses well in advance (e.g. before 2030 or so), but then let people decide when and how to move them. Eventually all P2PK coins left should be regarded as ANYONECANSPEND. And everybody can move coins to new addresses and not re-use them, and they would be okay for decades probably as a quantum computer with the ability to crack a key in 10 minutes is probably decades away.

There are many reasons for me to handle it that way. The first and most important one is: I think if Satoshi doesn't move the coins, a re-distribution will do more good than harm. All the time there is FUD about Satoshi eventually moving his MILLIONS OF COINS and then Bitcoin crashing to 0. But a million coins is actually the current trading volume of 1-2 days.

In addition, the coins are on several different addresses, so when the quantum hacker cracks one, he then has to crack the next, and so on; he will only be able to sell 50 BTC at once. Probably different hacker groups would take the "prize" so there would not be an ultra-whale afterwards, but many new dolphins.