Bitcoin Core Developer: Rather than Risking 5.6 Million BTC to Quantum Hacking, It's Better to Lock Them Up

April 16th – Bitcoin Core developer Jameson Lopp recently argued that freezing long-dormant bitcoins would be preferable to letting quantum computing attackers potentially steal them in the future. Roughly 5.6 million BTC (about 28% of the total supply) has been inactive for over a decade, likely permanently lost, with a current value of around $420 billion. If these dormant coins were cracked by a quantum computer and entered circulation, it could spark severe price swings, market panic, and erode confidence in the Bitcoin network. Lopp stressed this is not an outcome he wants, but rather a contingency plan to counter a potential existential threat. He’s more focused on rendering these “lost” coins unusable to attackers. The BIP-361 proposal, which Lopp contributed to, aims to phase out the current quantum-vulnerable signature scheme and push users to upgrade their wallets by invalidating transactions from non-upgraded ones. The idea is still in its early stages, and Lopp himself “dislikes” the proposal, hoping it never needs implementation. However, he believes network-wide security takes precedence over strict immutability principles when facing the quantum threat.