Bitcoin Developer Jameson Lopp Advocates for Freezing 5.6 Million Dormant BTC to Thwart Hackers

A prominent Bitcoin core developer has expressed a preference for freezing the estimated 5.6 million lost or dormant bitcoin, valued at approximately $420 billion, rather than risking them being exploited by future quantum hackers. Jameson Lopp stated that, although he does not wish to freeze anyone's bitcoin, removing inactive tokens from potential circulation might be a safer approach for the network. Lopp's comments come after the release of BIP-361, a proposal that explores phasing out bitcoin's current cryptographic signatures and potentially invalidating transactions from quantum-vulnerable wallets. The proposal has sparked intense debate within the community, with some arguing that freezing dormant assets would undermine Bitcoin's core principles and others seeing it as a necessary measure to protect the network from potential threats.