Quantum computers challenge one million Bitcoins of Satoshi Nakamoto. Coins worth more than $97 billion are at risk due to vulnerabilities in early transaction formats.
The security of Bitcoin's first transactions raises serious concerns among experts. The reason for concern is the rapid development of quantum computing, which theoretically can hack the old pay-to-public-key (P2PK) transaction format.
The issue is that the creator's Bitcoins are stored in P2PK format transactions, where public keys are available on the blockchain. Unlike the modern pay-to-public-key-hash (P2PKH) standard, where the public key is hidden behind a hash until the funds are spent, the old format makes these coins a potential target for quantum attacks.
There are heated debates within the crypto community about the need to freeze Satoshi's one million Bitcoins. Technically, this is possible by changing the consensus rules to make certain unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) unusable.
To implement this idea, it requires:
The idea of freezing coins contradicts the basic principles of Bitcoin. It was originally conceived as an immutable ledger where no one can rewrite transaction history. Interfering with the network via a fork can set a dangerous precedent and undermine blockchain decentralization.
However, supporters of freezing consider the case with Satoshi's coins special. In their opinion, the potential hacking of such a number of Bitcoins could collapse the entire crypto market, which justifies exceptional measures.
At the moment, quantum computers do not pose a real threat to these funds. However, the rapid progress in the field of quantum computing forces the crypto community to seek preventive protective measures.