What Happens To Satoshi’s 1m Bitcoin If Quantum Computers Go Live?

Satoshi’s 1.1-million-BTC wallet is increasingly viewed as a potential quantum vulnerability as researchers assess how advancing computing power could affect early Bitcoin addresses.

Satoshi Nakamoto’s estimated 1.1 million Bitcoin (BTC) is often described as the crypto world’s ultimate “lost treasure.” It sits on the blockchain like a dormant volcano, a digital ghost ship that has not seen an onchain transaction since its creation. This massive stash, worth approximately $67 billion-$124 billion at current market rates, has become a legend.

But for a growing number of cryptographers and physicists, it is also viewed as a multibillion-dollar security risk. The threat is not a hacker, a server breach or a lost password; it is the emergence of an entirely new form of computation: quantum computing.

As quantum machines move from theoretical research labs to powerful working prototypes, they pose a potential threat to existing cryptographic systems. This includes the encryption that protects Satoshi’s coins, the wider Bitcoin network and parts of the global financial infrastructure.

This is not a distant “what if.” The race to build both a quantum computer and a quantum-resistant defense is one of the most critical and well-funded technological efforts of our time. Here is what you need to know.

Most modern Bitcoin wallets hide the public key until a transaction occurs. Satoshi’s legacy pay-to-public-key (P2PK) addresses do not, and their public keys are permanently exposed onchain.

To understand the threat, it is important to recognize that not all Bitcoin addresses are created equal. The vulnerability lies in the type of address Satoshi used in 2009 and 2010.

Most Bitcoin today is held in pay-to-public-key-hash (P2PKH) addresses, which start with “1,” or in newer SegWit addresses that begin with “bc1.” In these address types, the blockchain does not store the full public key when coins are received; it stores only a hash of the public key, and the actual public key is revealed only when the coins are spent.

Think of it like a bank’s drop box. The address hash is the mail slot; anyone can see it and drop money in. The public key is the locked metal door behind the slot. No one can see the lock or its mechanism. The public key (the “lock”) is only revealed to the network at the one and only moment you decide to spend the coins, at which point your private key “unlocks” it.

Satoshi’s coins, however, are stored in much older P2PK addresses. In this lega

Source: CoinTelegraph