“The landfill, operational since the early 2000s, is nearing the end of its lifespan. Consequently, the council is preparing for an organized closure and sealing of the site over the forthcoming two years,” a spokesperson for the Newport council informed the BBC.

As part of post-closure plans, the council has obtained planning permission to establish a solar farm on part of the land, a proposal that received approval in August.

The landfill is believed to hold a significant BTC stash on a hard drive that local IT professional, James Howells, claims was accidentally thrown away by his ex-partner in 2013. Howells alleges that the drive contains approximately 8,000 BTC he mined back in 2009, which would currently be valued at roughly $768 million.

Howells has been entangled in a lengthy legal tussle with the Newport council for the past decade, suing for either permission to search the dump for the drive and proposing to share its contents if found, or to receive compensation for his loss. His case was dismissed in January, with the judge stating he had “no viable chance” of winning in a full trial.

Although Howells claimed he had AI specialists with the right technology to locate the hard drive at no cost to the council or public, the council stated in October that excavation was not feasible under its environmental permit due to the “tremendous negative environmental impact on the surrounding area.”

According to Al Leong, a Web3 executive, the 8,000 BTC purportedly on the lost drive represents a fraction of a digital abyss of lost BTC, potentially as much as 13% of the supply or approximately 3 million coins. Paolo Ardoino, Tether’s CEO, suggests that quantum computing could potentially hack Bitcoin in “lost wallets” and reintroduce it into circulation, a prospect that some experts warn could exert sell pressure on Bitcoin.

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“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.

The post Quantum Tech Could Resurrect Lost Bitcoin, Predicts Tether’s CEO appeared first on Crypto Market Insights: Dive In with CryptoUpdate.io.