Freezing $79,707.35 worth of dormant bitcoin could trigger an instantaneous repricing, marking one of the most severe trading days for the cryptocurrency since its launch in 2009, according to advocates. The debate surrounding the freezing of dormant tokens to protect against quantum computing threats has been ongoing among bitcoin developers and industry participants. Samuel 'Chad' Patt, founder of Op Net, stated that freezing any coins, including 'lost' ones, would set a precedent that all 19.8 million BTC in circulation are conditionally owned, which would be a concern for institutional risk desks.
Jason Fernandes, a market analyst, agrees that a successful quantum attack would have severe consequences, but believes that freezing dormant coins is not the solution. Mati Greenspan, a self-described maximalist, argued that if quantum computers were to crack early Bitcoin wallets, it would trigger the largest bug bounty in history rather than a rollback or freeze. The discussion follows weeks of debate over how to respond to the potential threat quantum computing poses to the bitcoin network, particularly the estimated 5.6 million BTC held in wallets that have been dormant for over a decade.
Jameson Lopp, a core Bitcoin developer, suggested that freezing the dormant bitcoin, worth roughly $440 billion, would be preferable to leaving it at risk of being stolen by future quantum hackers. Lopp and other core developers released Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 361, which contemplates phasing out bitcoin's current cryptographic signatures and potentially freezing assets that fail to migrate. Patt warned that if this were to happen, bitcoin's repricing would be instantaneous and would be the worst single day in bitcoin's history, as it would prove that the network's core value proposition is negotiable.
Other bitcoin maximalists, such as Kent Halliburton and Khushboo Khullar, argued that freezing dormant coins would undermine Bitcoin's core principles of immutability, permissionlessness, and no central enforcement. However, not all maximalists agree, with some believing that Lopp's proposal is sensible and that the risk of inaction far outweighs any concern about precedent or philosophical purity. Ultimately, the decision to freeze dormant coins or not will have significant implications for the bitcoin community and its core values.