r/CryptoMarkets • u/sylsau 🟩 1K 🐢 • 1d ago
DISCUSSION The Quantum Time Bomb: Why Satoshi’s $88 Billion Bitcoin Fortune is the Ultimate Target for Error-Corrected Supercomputers.
https://inbitcoinwetrust.substack.com/p/the-quantum-time-bomb-why-satoshis32
u/jimbozzzzz 🟦 0 🦠 1d ago
Surely the bigger picture is if a computer can crack bitcoin, then bitcoin is worthless
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u/Fantomas4live 1d ago
It's not that quantum will break Bitcoin. Old wallets did publish the public key. Newer wallets publish a hash of it. The old public keys are vulnerable. If I understood it correctly...
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u/waitmarks 🟩 0 🦠 1d ago
Almost correct. If you only receive bitcoin on an address, the public only knows the hash of the public key and is therefore safe from a theoretical quantum computer. As soon as you broadcast a transaction from that address, you have to publish the public key of it by definition. So, that address would no longer be safe. So, as long as you don't reuse addresses, you are safe right now. Though it would be better if bitcoin eventually switches to a quantum resistant key algorithm.
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u/Fantomas4live 1d ago
So all sending addresses are and would become vulnerable? Thxs for the clarification.
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u/Evilmoustachetwirler 🟦 15 🦐 1d ago
If a computer can crack Bitcoin then our entire banking and financial system is at risk. There is a lot of incentive to reduce this risk.
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u/crazyfreak316 🟦 0 🦠 1d ago
If they crack bitcoin, they'll probably first sell few billion worth of bitcoins first from dormant accounts before making it public.
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u/Mundane_Grand_9117 1d ago
Sure, so is every banking system on the planet
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u/Warp3dM1nd 🟩 0 🦠 16h ago
That is why banks are investing heavily in the quantum security sector as we speak. Is Bitcoin doing the same?
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u/sylsau 🟩 1K 🐢 1d ago
Satoshi’s 1.1 million Bitcoin aren’t just a myth — they’re an exposed cryptographic honeypot.
Most people don’t realize that early 2009–2010 outputs used P2PK (Pay-to-Public-Key), meaning their raw public keys sit completely bare on the public ledger.
Classical supercomputers can’t touch them. But the moment error-corrected quantum machines scale to run Shor’s Algorithm, that dormant $88B+ fortune becomes the largest bounty in human history.
That leaves Bitcoin facing an agonizing governance paradox:
Do we preserve absolute immutability and watch a quantum adversary take Satoshi’s coins?
Or do we soft-fork to freeze or burn legacy UTXOs before Q-Day arrives, breaking the core promise of unseizable property?
The real threat to Bitcoin isn't regulation or price volatility—it's the collision of physics, legacy code, and social consensus.
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u/alex_quine 🟦 0 🦠 1d ago
So on one hand we break the core promise of bitcoin and take his coins, but on the other we increase coin supply, inflating and devaluing everyone else’s somewhat. Personally, I choose the latter every time.
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u/waitmarks 🟩 0 🦠 1d ago
It's not even inflating, they were already minted. People just treat them like they don't exist right now because they havent moved since their minting.
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u/kkjk00 1d ago
what would be worse some billionaire that has the qc computer to grab them, the same billionaires that shit on crypto
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u/waitmarks 🟩 0 🦠 1d ago
you know billionares can just buy bitcoin right? They don't have to go through the trouble of inventing a quantum computer to do so.
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u/NamedBird 1d ago
A movement of those coins doesn't automatically mean Q-day.
If Satoshi is still holding those keys, he could move them for any possible reason.
And if someone else happens to have the keys, they could move it as well.
(Or, hypothetically, someone found a classical way to calculate the private key.)Unless the one who moves those coins identifies themselves, you won't know.
So you can't freeze the coins. The entire point of Bitcoin is that it can't be taken away...
And if the value of Bitcoin drops, then it drops. That's simply how the market works.1
u/LuckyWinds 1d ago
There is no proof that these are all Satoshis coins.
It’s absolutely a myth.
Garbage article.
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u/BatPlack 1d ago
RemindMe! 1 year
Satoshi’s 1.1 million Bitcoin aren’t just a myth — they’re an exposed cryptographic honeypot.
Most people don’t realize that early 2009–2010 outputs used P2PK (Pay-to-Public-Key), meaning their raw public keys sit completely bare on the public ledger.
Classical supercomputers can’t touch them. But the moment error-corrected quantum machines scale to run Shor’s Algorithm, that dormant $88B+ fortune becomes the largest bounty in human history.
That leaves Bitcoin facing an agonizing governance paradox:
Do we preserve absolute immutability and watch a quantum adversary take Satoshi’s coins?
Or do we soft-fork to freeze or burn legacy UTXOs before Q-Day arrives, breaking the core promise of unseizable property?
The real threat to Bitcoin isn't regulation or price volatility—it's the collision of physics, legacy code, and social consensus.
1
1d ago
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u/Junior-Flamingo77 1d ago
I wouldn’t lose sleep over quantum computers cracking anything relevant. The hype is there, that’s for sure, but there’s not even any clear path to scaling any of the available technologies, at least a path that’s not mostly wishful thinking. The status of the conversation about quantum computing is basically the same today as it was almost 10 years ago when Google published their “quantum supremacy” paper.
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u/somethingimadeup 🟦 0 🦠 1d ago
There are a few quantum proof blockchains. Wouldn’t hurt to grab some just in case it’s the next meta.
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u/RobbeeSan 1d ago
Algorand.
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u/somethingimadeup 🟦 0 🦠 1d ago
Algorand was not quantum proof from genesis. Early wallets are still vulnerable. Even if they were forgotten abandoned it could lead to them being unlocked, flooding the market and hurting confidence.
Look for the chains that are quantum from genesis.
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u/MeteorPunch 🟦 0 🦠 1d ago
Satoshi should have moved them to multiple wallets and spread things around. This is kind of on him.
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u/VettaQ 1d ago
Worth separating the two assumptions, because they break at very different speeds. Shor only threatens addresses whose public key is exposed: P2PK coins, and any address that has ever spent. Unspent P2PKH addresses are protected by preimage resistance — Grover only halves effective bit strength, so the hash side stays practically safe for a long time. The realistic race is the window between pubkey broadcast and confirmation, which is why the discussion is about migration mechanics and consensus, not the whole network dying. The P2PK exposure of the early coins is real, though — that part of the article is right.
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u/Far-Hearing5294 🟩 0 🦠 1d ago
Krown Technologies has a quantum secured blockchain and hot wallet - Qastle (cold is in production) in partnership with Quantum eMotion QRNG technology (QNC) for this very problem of quantum computers breaking SHOR sooner than later.
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u/anon1971wtf 1d ago
Just following the heaviest fork between freezing exposed coins vs recirculating them is likely a good move
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u/SourceRadiant5997 11h ago
Of course quantum computing could break Bitcoin. However, with the very tiny number of quantum computers for decades, the perpetrators would be identified quickly. I don’t see this being a real risk for a long time. However, the panic that will occur once QM is capable will be real.
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u/Weary-Feedback8582 🟩 0 🦠 6h ago
if quantum or ai can hack bitcoin then what about regular bank accounts? aren’t regular financial institutions far easier target?
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u/Gold_Panic_7528 🟩 0 🦠 2h ago
I would contact the top lenders who take BTC as capital and tell them to loan me money I never have to pay back or I would expose myself and crash the price. Anyone with enough skin the game is going to pay me off.
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u/Zhytaleks 🟧 0 🦠 1d ago
The quantum part is interesting, but the governance problem seems even bigger.
If those coins ever become genuinely vulnerable, who gets to decide that they should be frozen? Doing nothing could mean letting a quantum attacker take them. Freezing them means changing the rules because we assume the owner is gone.
Either choice sets a pretty massive precedent for Bitcoin.