Bitcoin community debates freezing BTC at risk from quantum attacks

A proposal is circulating within the Bitcoin community to freeze certain BTC at the network level to protect against threats from quantum computing, Cointelegraph reported. The discussion focuses on approximately 1.7 million BTC held in early Pay-to-Public-Key (P2PK) addresses, which are not quantum-resistant. This includes assets widely believed to belong to Satoshi Nakamoto, valued at $74 billion. Jameson Lopp, a Bitcoin Core developer and co-founder of crypto custody firm Casa, noted that if these funds were compromised by hackers, it could have a significant impact on the network's trust and value. However, the proposal has drawn criticism for potentially rendering some existing unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) unusable for users who have not upgraded, a move that critics argue would conflict with Bitcoin's core philosophy of autonomy.