CryptoQuant Founder Proposes Freezing Old Bitcoin Addresses to Prevent Quantum Attacks
Ki Young Ju, founding father of CryptoQuant, has proposed {that a} future Bitcoin (BTC) quantum improve could require freezing outdated addresses to shield towards potential theft by quantum computer systems.
He additionally believes that addressing the chance can be difficult as a result of the crypto group has traditionally struggled to agree on protocol adjustments.
Solution to Quantum Risk
In a social media submit, Ju explained that anybody holding BTC in outdated handle sorts faces the identical danger. This is as a result of the digital belongings may both be frozen by design or stolen if quantum machines evolve sufficient to break BTC’s cryptography. He added that even securely saved personal keys may turn out to be ineffective if house owners fail to undertake protocol upgrades in time.
“In easy phrases, cash that seem completely protected as we speak may turn out to be spendable by an attacker tomorrow,” warned Ju.
In response to the risk, the CryptoQuant founder has steered freezing outdated addresses, together with the one containing Satoshi’s 1 million BTC, to stop them from being stolen or compromised.
“Would you help freezing dormant cash, together with Satoshi’s, to save BTC from quantum assaults?” he requested.
Bitcoin’s safety depends on cryptography that’s successfully unbreakable by classical computer systems. However, quantum computer systems change this assumption. Under sure circumstances, a sufficiently highly effective machine of this type may get a personal key from an uncovered public key.
Once a public key’s revealed on-chain, the chance is everlasting. Ju estimates that roughly 6.89 million BTC are at the moment exposed to such assaults. Data exhibits that about 3.4 million BTC have been dormant for over a decade, together with Satoshi’s stash, representing tons of of billions of {dollars} in potential worth. He defined that with a lot worth in danger, hackers may very well be very motivated if the know-how turns into cheaper and simpler to use.
Social Consensus Challenges
Even if freezing dormant BTC is technically doable, reaching group settlement continues to be a significant problem. This is as a result of such options transfer rapidly, whereas social consensus occurs slowly.
The Bitcoin ecosystem has traditionally struggled with agreeing on protocol adjustments. This may be seen within the block dimension debate, which lasted greater than three years and led to onerous forks. Another instance is the failed SegWit2x improve, demonstrating how tough coming to an settlement may be.
Freezing cash, even to stop quantum assaults, would doubtless face comparable resistance as a result of it conflicts with the OG cryptocurrency’s core philosophy of decentralization and consumer management.
Ju cautioned that the shortage of full settlement may probably lead to rival BTC forks as quantum know-how progresses. According to him, the actual query just isn’t whether or not the risk will arrive in 5 or ten years, however whether or not the crypto group can be united on how to deal with it earlier than then.
Elsewhere, Bankless co-founder David Hoffman believes that within the occasion of a quantum assault, ETH would proceed functioning usually even when BTC have been to fail as a result of it has been lengthy ready for these challenges.
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