Changpeng Zhao proposes freezing Satoshi's bitcoins: protection against quantum threat
Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has made a radical proposal: give Satoshi Nakamoto 12 months to move his bitcoins before the upcoming quantum network upgrade. If the coins are not moved, they should be frozen forever. This statement has sparked a heated debate in the crypto community, and I believe it points to a much deeper issue than simply managing the legendary creator's assets.
According to Zhao, only about 20 million coins will remain in the new protocol, as the rest will be locked. This is how he described the consequences of the proposed freeze on inactive wallets. The discussion concerns wallets from the early days of Bitcoin, which are considered the most vulnerable. As quantum computers evolve, traditional encryption methods may come under threat, which is what prompted Zhao's proposal.
Protection against the quantum threat
Zhao warned that inaction on this issue is dangerous. If nothing is done, the coins will essentially go to whoever cracks them. This will happen as soon as quantum computing reaches the necessary level. The idea is to protect vulnerable digital assets before they become accessible to attackers. The one-year window, in Zhao's view, would give the owner of inactive coins the opportunity to transfer them to a secure format.
Wallets from Nakamoto's active period use the Pay-To-Public-Key (P2PK) format, which fully exposes the public key. This makes them an ideal target for quantum attacks. Zhao emphasizes that inaction could result in billions of dollars in bitcoins falling into the hands of attackers.
A similar idea was proposed in 2024
A similar proposal was previously put forward by Ava Labs CEO Emin Gün Sirer. He believes that quantum computing could pose a danger to legacy technologies. Sirer stated that quantum computing would simplify the execution of certain operations, such as number factorization, while other tasks would remain equally complex. Additionally, in his assessment, a quantum attacker has only a small window of opportunity for an attack, which complicates their work.
Sirer noted that modern wallets and systems like Avalanche do not use P2PK, but it was used in the early days of Bitcoin. Therefore, in his opinion, when quantum computing becomes a real threat, the community should consider freezing Satoshi's coins or, more broadly, setting a deadline and freezing all coins in the P2PK format.
My expert opinion: The idea of freezing Satoshi's bitcoins is not just a technical issue, but a fundamental challenge to the principles of decentralization and blockchain immutability. If the community takes such a step, it would create a dangerous precedent where assets can be frozen "just in case." On the other hand, ignoring the quantum threat could lead to catastrophic consequences for the entire ecosystem. I believe that instead of a radical freeze, a mechanism for voluntary key updates should be developed for all owners of old wallets, not just Satoshi. This would preserve the spirit of Bitcoin while protecting it from future threats.