Bitcoin Developer Jameson Lopp Favors Freezing 5.6 Million BTC to Prevent Quantum Hacker Threats

According to Jameson Lopp, a prominent Bitcoin core developer, it would be preferable to freeze the estimated 5.6 million lost bitcoin, valued at approximately $420 billion, rather than risk them being compromised by future quantum hackers. Lopp emphasized that he does not want to restrict access to anyone's bitcoin, but removing dormant tokens from circulation might be a safer option for the network. He stated, 'I'd rather see lost or dormant coins removed from an attacker's reach than have them fall into the hands of an entity that likely doesn't care about the ecosystem.' His comments follow the release of BIP-361, a proposal that explores phasing out Bitcoin's current cryptographic signatures and potentially freezing assets that fail to migrate. Lopp hopes the proposal never needs to be adopted, describing it as a 'rough idea for a contingency plan.' He believes that individual economic incentives outweigh philosophical principles in the face of an existential threat. Lopp has previously expressed concerns about quantum recovery, which he thinks rewards technological supremacy over productive participation in the network. Approximately 28% of all bitcoin, or about 5.6 million tokens, has not moved in over a decade and is considered likely lost. If recovered through advances in quantum computing, this amount could introduce significant volatility and undermine confidence in the original crypto network. The proposal has sparked fierce debate within the community, with some arguing that freezing dormant bitcoin accounts would mark a significant departure from Bitcoin's core principles. Market analyst Mati Greenspan said the debate is more philosophical than technological, and freezing dormant coins could remove a major tail-risk and protect market confidence, but it also introduces a precedent of intervention that many would argue is more dangerous than the threat itself. Others argue that freezing dormant BTC accounts risks undermining Bitcoin's foundational guarantees, as ownership becomes conditional and having keys no longer guarantees the ability to spend.