• A draft proposal titled Post Quantum Migration and Legacy Signature Sunset outlines a phased plan to retire Bitcoins original signature methods before quantum computers can break them.
  • The soft fork would roll out in three stages and could freeze over 1 million BTC tied to early miner addressespotentially including Satoshis $100B+ stash.
  • The authors warn that postponing the upgrade increases systemic risk, and that a quantum breakthrough could allow silent fund theft, destroying trust in the Bitcoin network.

A newly introduced Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (BIP) could radically reshape how older BTC is secured. 

The draft, called Post Quantum Migration and Legacy Signature Sunset, outlines a roadmap to phase out Bitcoins original signature mechanisms before quantum computers render them obsolete.

The proposal was written by a group of cryptographers and blockchain engineers, including Jameson Lopp and Christian Papathanasiou, and comes amid mounting concern that quantum machines capable of breaking Bitcoins cryptography may arrive by the end of the decade.

Related: US CPI Rise Spurs TariffDriven Price Shiftsand Crypto Wobbles

Advertisement

The proposal treats the quantum computing threat as an engineering inevitability, as machines capable of breaking Bitcoins elliptic curve cryptography could emerge by the end of the decade, if not sooner, citing a report from McKinsey

A successful quantum attack on Bitcoin would result in significant economic disruption and damage across the entire ecosystem. Beyond its impact on price, the ability of miners to provide network security may be significantly impacted.

Jameson Lopp, Christian Papathanasiou

To summarise it, the soft fork would unroll in three major stages, as shown below:

The draft urges that delaying the process would only increase complexity and risk. The longer we postpone migration, the harder it becomes to coordinate, the team warned. Even more, if a quantum breakthrough occurs before migration is complete, attackers could covertly extract funds, destabilising the market and completely obliterating any trust in the market.

Generally speaking, the implications are massive for everyone. If implemented, the soft fork would freeze more than 1 million BTC linked to early miner addresses, widely believed to belong to Satoshi. That stash alone is worth over US$100B (AU$153B) and has never moved since the coins inception.

The proposal is currently in draft stage and has not been assigned a BIP number. But it marks a significant step in formalising the networks defense against what could be the most serious cryptographic threat in Bitcoins history.

Related: Crypto Week Stalls: US House Halts Procedural Vote on Landmark Stablecoin Bills  

Advertisement