{"id":81057,"date":"2026-04-15T16:01:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=81057"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:01:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:01:41","slug":"bitcoin-faces-quantum-risk-new-proposal-could-lock-vulnerable-coins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=81057","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin Faces Quantum Risk \u2014 New Proposal Could Lock Vulnerable Coins"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Buried inside a new Bitcoin security proposal is a provision that could save stragglers from losing everything.<\/p>\n

Anyone who misses the upgrade deadline but still holds their seed phrase<\/a> would have a path to recovery through zero-knowledge proof technology<\/a> \u2014 a last-resort mechanism built into the final phase of BIP-361, a draft posted to GitHub on Tuesday by cypherpunk Jameson Lopp and five co-authors.<\/p>\n

The full proposal<\/a> is a three-phase plan designed to protect Bitcoin from a threat that has quietly grown more serious: the eventual ability of quantum computers to crack the cryptographic keys protecting early Bitcoin addresses.<\/p>\n

Satoshi\u2019s Fortune At The Center Of It All<\/h2>\n

About 1.7 million BTC sits in old-style addresses known as P2PK \u2014 the kind used in Bitcoin\u2019s earliest days. Those addresses expose public keys directly, making them vulnerable once quantum computing<\/a> reaches sufficient power.<\/p>\n

Satoshi Nakamoto\u2019s stash alone is valued at roughly $74 billion at current prices. According to the proposal\u2019s authors, if a bad actor gained quantum access to those coins, the damage to Bitcoin\u2019s value and credibility could be severe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

BIP-361 builds on BIP-360, released in February, which introduced a new quantum-resistant address format called pay-to-Merkle-root, or P2MR<\/a>. That earlier proposal protects new coins. BIP-361 tackles what BIP-360 left unresolved \u2014 the roughly 34% of Bitcoin\u2019s total supply<\/a> still sitting in vulnerable addresses.<\/p>\n

The plan unfolds in stages. Three years after activation, sending BTC to old-style addresses would no longer be allowed. Two years after that, old-format signatures would be invalidated entirely.<\/p>\n

Any coins that haven\u2019t been moved by then would be frozen. The third phase \u2014 the rescue window \u2014 gives late movers a technical route to reclaim funds using proof of seed ownership.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Community Response Has Been Blunt<\/h2>\n

The proposal landed hard among Bitcoin\u2019s most vocal voices. Bitcoin Magazine\u2019s editor rejected it outright. TFTC founder Marty Bent called it \u201claughable.\u201d Metaplanet\u2019s head of business development put the contradiction plainly: \u201cWe have to steal people\u2019s money to prevent their money from being stolen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The authors anticipated the backlash. Based on their own framing, the freeze isn\u2019t meant as punishment \u2014 it\u2019s described as a defense against a worse outcome. Frozen coins, they argue, slightly increase the value of everyone else\u2019s holdings. Quantum-stolen coins do the opposite.<\/p>\n

\n

This quantum proposal is highly authoritarian and confiscatory, but of course, it\u2019s from Lopp. \"\ud83d\udea9\" \"\ud83d\udea9\"<\/p>\n

There is no good rationale for forcing the upgrade and rendering old spends invalid. Upgrade should be 100% voluntary. pic.twitter.com\/tQvJVgdPRY<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Cato The Elder (@CatoTheElder17) April 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Protocol developer Mark Erhardt shared the proposal on X, where pushback came quickly. Critics called it \u201chighly authoritarian and confiscatory\u201d and questioned whether any deadline could justify making existing Bitcoin<\/a> unspendable by its rightful owners. Lopp had not responded to requests for comment at the time of publication.<\/p>\n

Whether BIP-361 moves forward depends on a consensus process that has historically resisted changes this significant. For now, it remains a draft \u2014 and a flashpoint.<\/p>\n

Featured image from PostQuantum, chart from TradingView<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buried inside a new Bitcoin security proposal is a provision that could save stragglers from losing everything. Anyone who misses the upgrade deadline but still holds their seed phrase would have a path to recovery through zero-knowledge proof technology \u2014 a last-resort mechanism built into the final phase of BIP-361, a draft posted to GitHub […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-81057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}