In a recent blog post, prominent cypherpunk Jameson Lopp has advocated for burning those Bitcoins that lack quantum resistance.
He believes that quantum recovery will not work due to the violation of property rights and the erosion of trust. Moreover, large-scale theft would crash the Bitcoin price.
"I, for one, am not interested in rewarding quantum capable entities by inflating the circulating money supply just because some people lost their keys long ago and some laggards are not upgrading their Bitcoin wallet's security," he said.
Why quantum recovery won't work
According to Lopp, a person with a powerful quantum computer will likely target the Bitcoin rich list, targeting those addresses that have exposed their private keys. Notably, this applies to the vast majority of the burned addresses.
Lopp argues that quantum recovery would weaken the security of the network since it would allow the coins to be claimed by those who did not earn them. The prominent software engineer compared this to a burglar investing in the resources and skills needed for robbing a building. He has stated that quantum miners would be "vampires feeding upon the system."
Tomiwabold OlajideEven if such efforts are benevolent in nature, the powerful technology could still end up in "adversarial hands," according to Lopp.
The growing threat of quantum computing
Following the release of Google's Willow chip, many Bitcoiners were quick to downplay the threat posed by quantum computing since cracking the encryption behind the largest cryptocurrency would require millions of qubits.
However, as reported by U.Today, Microsoft's groundbreaking Majorana 1 chip shows that the aforementioned number of qubits might be way closer than initially expected. However, some scientists have criticized the tech giant, accusing it of making claims that are not actually supported by scientific evidence.
Vladislav Sopov
Dan Burgin