According to Tether CEO, Paolo Ardoino, the advent of quantum computing will be capable of cracking dormant Bitcoin wallets, thereby reintroducing the dormant Bitcoin back to circulation. However, he also emphasized that this development still lies far into the future.
“Any Bitcoin in lost wallets, including Satoshi’s (if he is not alive), will be hacked and put back in circulation,” Ardoino expressed in a post dated Feb 8.
Despite the potential risks, Ardoino assured that “Quantum computing is still very distant from posing any significant risk to Bitcoin cryptography.”
Quantum computing, which leverages atomic-level phenomena to solve intricate problems that are beyond the capabilities of regular computers, puts lost Bitcoin wallets at a higher risk as it progresses. This is due to the lack of any protection or movement of funds in these wallets. Contrastingly, active wallets are more likely to adopt quantum-resistant protection as it becomes available.
Ardoino further stated that all Bitcoin wallets owned by individuals who are alive and can access their wallets will be transferred to new “quantum-resistant addresses.”
Known crypto trader Crypto Skull warned his 140,500 followers that if Satoshi Nakamoto’s old wallets were to be reintroduced into circulation, it “could theoretically send us back to the stone age.” Some experts suggest that Satoshi’s 1 million Bitcoins should remain frozen to avoid misuse.
Bitcoin billionaire Chamath Paliapitya also echoed Ardoino’s sentiment in a December post stating that “Quantum Computing will pose a risk to v1 cryptographic approaches.”
As per a report by Quantum Grad in July 2023, Grover’s search algorithm, a superfast algorithm for searching an unsorted database, is the ideal standard to search for a Bitcoin key. However, it might take millions of qubits to construct a functioning Grover’s algorithm capable of effortlessly unearthing the private key to Bitcoin wallets.
