Bitcoin's Quantum Problem: Why 6.7 Million Coins Could Be Frozen Forever

There is a proposal circulating among Bitcoin developers that would, if adopted, make roughly a third of all Bitcoin permanently unspendable. Not stolen. Not confiscated by a government. Simply frozen by the rules of the network itself, including an estimated 1.7 million coins widely believed to belong to Bitcoin's anonymous creator.

The proposal is not a fringe idea. It was authored by a group including Jameson Lopp, a co-founder of the custody firm Casa and one of the most established security researchers in the field. It has a formal number in Bitcoin's official proposal system. And it exists because of a threat that has moved, over the past eighteen months, from a distant theoretical concern to something developers now treat as a scheduling problem.

This piece explains what is actually being proposed, why the threat is considered credible, and why the proposed cure is more contested than the disease.

What is being proposed, in plain terms?

Bitcoin developers publish formal change proposals in a numbered system. Each one is called a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal, abbreviated BIP. A number does not mean a proposal is approved or scheduled. It means the idea has been documented in a standard format so the community can examine it. Most BIPs are never adopted.

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