CryptoQuant’s founder suggests freezing old Bitcoin addresses to prevent quantum attacks

Bitcoin may need a drastic solution against quantum threats as CryptoQuant founder pushes to freeze inactive wallets holding billions in BTC.

Ki Young Ju, founder of CryptoQuant, has suggested that a future Bitcoin (BTC) quantum upgrade may require freezing old addresses to protect against possible theft by quantum computers.

He also believes that addressing the risk would be a challenge because the crypto community has historically struggled to agree on protocol changes.

Quantum risk solution

In a post on social media, Ju said explained that anyone holding BTC in old address types faces the same risk. This is because the digital assets can either be frozen by design or stolen if the quantum machines evolve enough to break BTC’s cryptography. He added that even securely stored private keys can become useless if owners fail to implement protocol upgrades in time.

“In simple terms, coins that seem completely safe today could be spent by an attacker tomorrow,” Ju warned.

In response to the threat, CryptoQuant’s founder has suggested freezing old addresses, including the address containing Satoshi’s 1 million BTC, to prevent them from being stolen or compromised.

“Would you support freezing dormant coins, including Satoshi’s, to save BTC from quantum attacks?” he asked.

Bitcoin’s security depends on cryptography that is effectively unbreakable by classical computers. However, quantum computers are changing this assumption. Under certain circumstances, such a machine that is sufficiently powerful could extract a private key from a public key.

Once a public key is exposed in the chain, the risk is permanent. Ju estimates that approximately 6.89 million BTC are currently exposed to such attacks. Data shows that approximately 3.4 million BTC have been dormant for more than a decade, including Satoshi’s supply, which represents a potential value of hundreds of billions of dollars. He explained that with so much value at risk, hackers could be highly motivated if the technology becomes cheaper and easier to use.

Social consensus challenges

Even if freezing dormant BTC is technically possible, reaching a community agreement is still a major challenge. This is because such solutions come about quickly, while social consensus comes about slowly.

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The Bitcoin ecosystem has historically struggled to agree on protocol changes. This is evident from the debate over block size, which lasted more than three years and led to hard forks. Another example is the failed SegWit2x upgrade, which shows how difficult it can be to reach an agreement.

Freezing coins, even to prevent quantum attacks, would likely meet similar resistance as it goes against the OG cryptocurrency’s core philosophy of decentralization and user control.

Ju warned that the lack of full agreement could potentially lead to rival BTC forks as quantum technology advances. According to him, the real question is not whether the threat will arrive in five or ten years, but whether the crypto community will agree on how to deal with it before then.

Elsewhere, Bankless co-founder David Hoffman believes that in the event of a quantum attack, ETH would continue to function normally even if BTC were to fail, as it has long been prepared for these challenges.