Leading Bitcoin Developer Jameson Lopp Favors Freezing 5.6 Million BTC to Prevent Hackers from Exploiting Them

According to Jameson Lopp, a prominent Bitcoin core developer, it would be preferable to freeze the estimated 5.6 million lost or dormant bitcoin rather than risk them being exploited by future quantum hackers. Lopp emphasized that while he does not support freezing anyone's bitcoin, removing inactive tokens from circulation might be a safer option for the network. 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 estimates that the dormant tokens are worth around $420 billion at current prices. In a recent post, Lopp expressed his reluctance towards the proposal, describing it as a 'rough idea for a contingency plan' rather than a finalized specification. He believes that individual economic incentives should take precedence over philosophical principles in the face of an existential threat. Lopp has previously expressed concerns about quantum recovery, stating that it rewards technological superiority rather than 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 lost by Lopp and other analysts. If these coins were to be recovered through advances in quantum computing, it 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 believes that the debate is more philosophical than technological, and that freezing dormant coins could remove a major tail-risk and protect market confidence, but also introduce 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.