Saving Satoshi Nakamoto's 1.1 million BTC! Paradigm proposes new post-quantum solution "PACTs", proving asset control without transfers

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Is there a solution for Bitcoin's quantum crisis? As the threat of quantum computing looms, the 1.1 million BTC held by Satoshi Nakamoto face a dilemma: being hacked or being forcibly frozen by the community. In response, top venture capital firm Paradigm has proposed a new architecture called "PACTs," allowing early whales to prove control over their assets privately using zero-knowledge proofs (STARKs) and timestamping technology, without needing to move funds or expose their identities. However, this mechanism still has an unavoidable flaw: Satoshi Nakamoto must personally step forward to perform the operation; otherwise, these ancient BTC remain destined to be locked forever. (Previous coverage: Don't fear quantum computers breaking Bitcoin! Analysts: The market can fully absorb the impact if $145 billion in BTC is hacked.) (Background: Solana releases anti-quantum upgrade roadmap: Two major clients lock in the Falcon scheme, ready to adopt post-quantum signature schemes at any time.) With the rapid development of quantum computers, the Bitcoin community is facing a multi-billion dollar ultimate challenge: how to protect those ancient wallets with exposed public keys that have remained dormant for years? The biggest ticking time bomb is the approximately 1.1 million BTC held by Satoshi Nakamoto (currently valued at about $84 billion). To defend against quantum hackers, Bitcoin core developer Jameson Lopp and five others proposed BIP-361 in mid-April. The proposal suggests a soft fork to gradually phase out quantum-vulnerable legacy addresses over five years; if holders do not transfer their funds to quantum-resistant addresses within the deadline, their BTC will be permanently frozen. However, this proposal has sparked massive controversy. It implies that Satoshi Nakamoto and all long-dormant early holders would be forced to "publicly wake up" their wallets and transfer assets, or else lose their property entirely. This creates an extreme deadlock between protecting network security and respecting dormant property rights. To resolve this dilemma, Dan Robinson, a General Partner at the venture capital firm Paradigm, released a new design on Friday called "Provable Address-Control Timestamps (PACTs)." The core concept of PACTs is elegant: there is no need to move tokens; one only needs to leave a timestamped proof of ownership before a specific date, which remains completely private to the public until the funds are actually spent. The specific operational process is as follows: - Private Proof Generation: The holder generates a random Salt (used to ensure the uniqueness and unpredictability of the cryptographic commitment) and uses the BIP-322 standard (signing messages from a Bitcoin address without spending) to generate a proof of ownership. - On-chain Timestamping: The salt and proof are bundled into an on-chain commitment and anchored to the Bitcoin blockchain via the free service OpenTimestamps. During this stage, all files and timestamps remain absolutely private. - Quantum-Resistant Unlocking: If the Bitcoin network eventually implements a soft fork to freeze old coins, the PACTs protocol will provide a "rescue channel." When holders need to spend, they simply submit a STARK proof (a quantum-resistant zero-knowledge proof) to demonstrate that they completed the commitment before quantum hardware became available. The strength of this mechanism is that the redemption process "does not leak the original address, the amount, or even the specific time the timestamp was created." Although PACTs provides a perfect buffer solution for the forced freezing proposed in BIP-361, Robinson admits that this mechanism still has a long way to go before practical application. First, the Bitcoin network currently lacks the infrastructure for STARK verification, which would require an independent soft fork to build community consensus and extensive modifications to the underlying pipeline (including multi-signature, complex scripts, and hardware wallet support). More importantly, PACTs cannot solve an ultimate philosophical and practical problem: the protocol can only protect assets if "Satoshi Nakamoto himself" or whoever currently holds those private keys personally makes the commitment. If Satoshi Nakamoto has passed away or the private keys are lost forever, no PACTs can be retroactively created. This means these 1.1 million BTC will ultimately face one of two fates: either being brute-forced and stolen by a quantum computer, or being permanently locked by a Bitcoin community soft fork.

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