Emin Gün Schiller, co-founder of Ava Labs, said that the Bitcoin held by anonymous creator Satoshi could be at risk with the launch of Google's quantum computing chip. Avalanche founders urge the community to consider freezing Satoshi's BTC holdings, while analysts say the security risks are minimal. In a 2010 post, Bitcoin's creator left a solution to break through the threat of quantum computing to blockchain security.
Satoshi, the creator of Bitcoin (BTC), holds over 1.1 million BTC tokens in 22 different public wallet addresses. These holdings have been dormant for a decade and are under wide scrutiny as sudden movements can cause wild swings in BTC prices. Tuesday's announcement that Google is developing a new quantum computing chip that could solve within minutes problems that classical supercomputers would take billions of years to solve raises concerns about the safety of Satoshi's holdings. I raised it.
Analysts and experts are divided on the threat this new development poses to the Bitcoin blockchain and Satoshi Nakamoto's BTC holdings.
Bitcoin held by Satoshi may be at risk
Based on a research paper by Sergio Demian Lerner titled “The well-deserved fortune of Bitcoin creator, visionary and genius Satoshi Nakamoto,” Satoshi has over 1.1 million Bitcoin tokens in 22 public wallet addresses. is held.
Satoshi's Bitcoin holdings are valued at nearly $107 billion at the current price of $97,600.
Investigation into Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin holdings
Satoshi's wallet has remained inactive since 2010, but his public wallet address is visible on-chain. Ava Labs co-founder Emin Gün Sirer said on Tuesday that Google's recent development of quantum computing chips poses a threat to authors' BTC holdings.
In a tweet thread on It is explained that the Key (P2PK) format was used. Attackers spend their time trying to earn cryptographic bounties.
There is a problem with Satoshi's 1 million Bitcoins. @hosseeb I just remembered that Satoshi's early coins used a very old Pay-To-Public-Key (P2PK) format. This is the mother of all crypto bounties, revealing the public key and giving the attacker time to grind. P2PK is not…
— egs9000⚔️ (@el33th4xor) December 9, 2024
With advances in quantum computing, there is no longer an immediate threat to cryptocurrencies. However, older mined coins may be at a disadvantage as malicious entities gain access to computing power to crack cryptographic codes and break into crypto wallets that have been inactive for decades. .
The co-founder of Ava Labs explained that the P2PK format is not used in modern Bitcoin wallets, meaning older wallets and early mined BTC are vulnerable.
Satoshi's view on BTC's security risks
At the Bitcoin Talk forum in 2010, Satoshi already discussed the potential for advances in quantum computing.
“Even if SHA-256 were to break completely, we could reach some agreement on what an honest blockchain is before the problem started, lock it in, and proceed from there using a new hash function.” I think so,” Satoshi said.
Satoshi's comments on Bitcointalk.org
SHA-256 stands for Secure Hashing Algorithm-256, a mining feature used by Bitcoin to verify transactions and regulate public addresses. SHA-256 is a modification of the U.S. National Security Agency's (NSA) SHA-2 algorithm, which is used to generate digital signatures and used by miners to calculate hashes for new blocks.
This helps maintain the integrity of blocks within the chain. Satoshi recommended that the community reach some consensus on an honest version of the blockchain before the chain loses its integrity.
Is the threat real?
Ryan Lee, principal analyst at BitGet Research, told FXStreet there is no immediate threat.
“With 105 qubits, Google's Willow chip solves problems in minutes that traditional supercomputers would take billions of years to solve.Despite this breakthrough, Willow's current capabilities are limited to Bitcoin does not pose an immediate threat to the cryptographic security of
The community of traders and crypto holders on X is divided. Some argue that freezing Satoshi's coins is wrong because it would introduce censorship and question the fundamental principles of transparency on the Bitcoin blockchain. Some say it's a feature, not a bug, that the bounty can be discovered if a person or entity eventually gains access to the wallet in the future.
Federico Wolfo, founder and CEO of Flow AI, said in a tweet about X:
“Why freeze Satoshi’s coins? The possibility of accessing old-style wallets is a feature, not a bug. It might be something.”
Why freeze Satoshi's coins? The possibility of accessing older format wallets is a feature, not a bug. In 100 years, it might be like discovering a long-lost galleon full of gold.
— Feeding | Flow Eye (@feulf) December 10, 2024
Meanwhile, Ethereum researcher Charlie Thompson claims that nearly 40% of Bitcoins whose public keys are stored in publicly available addresses are “at serious risk.”
Thompson backed up his claim in a post on Medium, in which the researcher said powerful quantum computers could tackle difficult calculations and shorten the time needed to derive a private key from a public key. He explains that it can be done.
“The BTC address that broadcast the transaction has a public key exposed, and all of Satoshi's 1 million coins would be exposed to this type of attack,” Thompson said.
He added that over 40% of Bitcoin balances held in wallets with public keys facing threats from developments in quantum computing.
