Freezing 5.6 million dormant bitcoin could trigger ‘worst’ single-day repricing
Maximalists warn freezing 5.6M BTC risks instant sell-offs, while others say quantum threats leave no alternative.
What to know:
— Bitcoin developers and analysts are fiercely debating a proposal to freeze about 5.6 million long-dormant coins to protect them from potential future quantum-computing attacks.
— Critics warn that freezing any coins would shatter Bitcoin’s promise of unconditional, censorship-resistant ownership and could trigger one of the worst single-day repricings in the cryptocurrency’s history.
— Supporters argue that quantum computing poses an existential threat that may justify controversial tradeoffs, while others insist that inaction and voluntary defenses are preferable to what they see as protocol-level confiscation.
Freezing dormant bitcoin
Bitcoin developers and crypto industry participants have debated for weeks whether they should freeze dormant tokens to protect them against the risk of theft through quantum computing, whenever those machines begin going online.
“Freezing any coins, even ‘lost’ ones, tells the market that all (roughly) 19.8 million BTC currently in circulation are conditionally owned,” said Samuel