He authored Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 361 (BIP-361), which outlines a phased migration to quantum-resistant cryptography.
“The goal is to create incentives and deadlines so that users, exchanges, custodians, wallets and institutions actually migrate in a timely manner,” said Lopp, who said in April that it would be better to freeze Satoshi’s stash and millions of other dormant bitcoins than let hackers steal them.
Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise, denied both allowing the coins to be stolen and outright freezing them.
Instead, he pointed to a proposal by Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter that would place Satoshi’s bitcoin in a legal trust until ownership could be proven through historical electronic records.
Avoid philosophical challenges
“I actually like Nic Carter’s proposal,” Hougan said via email. “It avoids the philosophical challenges of both CZ’s proposal and the ‘let what happens’ perspective.”
Hougan said the market already treats Satoshi’s holdings as effectively inaccessible, meaning almost any change would create more risk than opportunity.
“I don’t think the development around Satoshi’s coins is positive for the ecosystem,” he said. “The market already stands for them as frozen forever.”
For now, the debate remains largely theoretical. Researchers are still working on practical post-quantum encryption for Bitcoin, and no consensus has been reached on how the network should respond if its encryption becomes vulnerable.
