New Quantum Proposal Offers Solution for Bitcoin Holders to Prove Control Without Transferring Funds

The concerns surrounding Bitcoin and quantum computing have long been intertwined with the issue of Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings. Millions of bitcoins, including the approximately 1.1 million attributed to Satoshi, worth around $84 billion, are stored in old wallets with exposed public keys, making them potentially vulnerable to theft by powerful quantum computers. The obvious solution is to implement a soft fork that phases out legacy address types, forcing holders to move to quantum-safe formats before attackers can derive their private keys. However, this approach creates a new problem, as dormant holders like Satoshi would need to publicly move their assets or risk losing access to them. To address this issue, Dan Robinson from Paradigm has proposed a solution called Provable Address-Control Timestamps, or PACTs. This concept allows holders to generate a proof of ownership and timestamp it without revealing any information to the public until they need to spend their coins. The process involves creating a cryptographic commitment using a random salt and BIP-322, and then bundling it with a timestamp through OpenTimestamps. If Bitcoin implements a soft fork that freezes quantum-vulnerable coins, the protocol could include a rescue path that accepts a zero-knowledge proof, showing the holder created their commitment before quantum hardware existed. This approach provides a potential solution for wallets derived through BIP-32, but it requires the adoption of a STARK verification protocol, which would need a separate soft fork with broad community consensus. The PACTs proposal offers a way to make the debate around BIP-361 less binary, as it provides a solution that balances the need to protect against quantum theft with the need to respect dormant property rights. However, the protocol's effectiveness ultimately relies on the holder, including Satoshi, taking the initiative to create the commitment.