Bitcoin Faces Quantum Risk — New Proposal Could Lock Vulnerable Coins
Buried inside a new Bitcoin security proposal is a provision that could save stragglers from losing everything. Related Reading: Crypto Gains Ally As Former CFTC Chair Becomes Full-Time Adviser Anyone who misses the upgrade deadline but still holds their seed phrase would have a path to recovery through zero-knowledge proof technology — a last-resort mechanism […]
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Paradigm researcher Dan Robinson has proposed a new mechanism that could let long-dormant Bitcoin holders, including Satoshi Nakamoto, preserve a future claim to their coins if Bitcoin ever has to restrict spending from quantum-vulnerable addresses. The proposal, called Provable Address-Control Timestamps, or PACTs, is designed to let holders prove they controlled an address before cryptographically […]
Just over 10,000 Bitcoin — out of nearly 20 million in circulation — sits in wallets actually exposed to a quantum attack. Related Reading: US Moves Bitcoin During Iran Strikes — Market Watches Closely That number comes from CoinShares, a crypto asset management firm, which found in February that only 10,230 coins are both vulnerable […]
Quantum risk has become a recurring stress point in Bitcoin discourse, often framed as an existential threat. The claim usually follows a familiar arc: quantum computing is advancing quickly, cryptography is vulnerable, and Bitcoin isn’t adapting fast enough. Marty Bent doesn’t buy that framing. In his Dec. 14 episode, Bent acknowledged that quantum computing represents […]
Bitcoin’s quantum problem is still years away, but Bernstein says 1.7 million BTC sitting in early address types could be among the most exposed if the technology ever gets there. Related Reading: XRP Faces No Immediate Quantum Threat As Only 0.03% Supply Seen At Risk: Analyst That includes an estimated 1.1 million BTC tied to Satoshi Nakamoto, which would matter only if quantum machines become strong enough to break today’s encryption. Legacy Wallets In Focus Bernstein’s view is not that Bitcoin faces a near-term collapse. The firm’s analysts describe the issue as a “manageable upgrade....
Bitcoin’s quantum risk may show up in derivatives markets well before any compromised coins move on-chain, according to FalconX co-head of markets Joshua Lim, who used an X thread on April 16 to map out what he sees as the most tradable signals around a potential “q-day” event. Lim’s core argument is that the market problem is not simply whether Bitcoin can migrate to post-quantum cryptography. It is also whether the network can politically resolve what to do with Satoshi Nakamoto’s coins and other old outputs that may never participate in such a migration. Quantum Risk Could Hit Bitcoin....