Quantum computers are coming, huh? I've heard they might crack those old Bitcoin private keys. What about wallets like Satoshi's? Those are just sitting there, right? Are we looking at some sort of treasure hunt for those early addresses?
Yeah, moving coins to new addresses seems like the only smart move. But once you spend from an address, the public key gets out there. That's a big risk with quantum tech coming. BIP360 doesn't solve everything, imo.
Right? Imagine people racing to hack those abandoned wallets, totally wild. It’s like a legal gray area, too. But if they manage to get those lost coins, is anyone really gonna see them again?
Yep, this whole quantum thing is about P2PK addresses where the public key is out there. Inactive UTXOs are at risk too. Some believe we need a way to freeze those addresses.
True, but if the public key's not exposed, those wallets are chill for now. If quantum tech rolls in, it’ll be a whole different game though. Protocols are what matter, not just criminal actions.
Incentives for hacking will just skyrocket as Bitcoin’s value goes up. But how do you even prove ownership anymore? It's a mess with multiple people potentially having the same keys.
Lol, nice pun with "qubits"! But seriously, this anxiety isn't new. People were worried about Bitcoin's security since the beginning. Remember all those talks about the cryptography behind it?
Is there an easy way to check if an address's public key is exposed? I mean, if it’s a non-P2PK address, how do you even find out if it’s been reused over the years?
If an address created a TX, then yeah, its public key is out there. Some edge cases exist, like sharing signed messages, but mostly it’s pretty straightforward.
Just learning about this "treasure hunt" concept. Seems risky! But stealing from old wallets shouldn’t be legal. Even if it’s tagged as ownerless, that doesn’t justify claiming those coins.
You’re missing the point. Owning Bitcoin is all about the signature and cryptographic proof. If you can derive keys, that’s not illegal. But legally, it might be seen differently.
Yep, researching cracks isn't illegal by itself. But what you do with that knowledge is what counts. Reporting weaknesses is ethical; exploiting them? Not so much.
Ultimately, the key owner is whoever controls the key. The network doesn’t care how you got it. We need to improve security and stop reusing addresses.
I get your point about cryptography being about breaking systems to improve them. But exploiting those cracks is where it gets morally gray. Wish quantum fears turn out to be just myths.