Adam Back says Bitcoin’s post-quantum shift may reveal true Satoshi stash

Blockstream CEO Adam Back said Thursday that a aboriginal post-quantum migration of Bitcoin could assistance clarify however galore coins linked to Satoshi Nakamoto stay accessible, due to the fact that immoderate proprietor wanting to support susceptible holdings would request to determination them to a caller code format.

Speaking astatine Paris Blockchain Week, Back said specified a migration would apt springiness users ample clip to determination funds and argued that coins near unmoved aft that process could reasonably beryllium treated arsenic lost.

“This migration to post-quantum code format whitethorn archer america however galore of those coins [Satoshi] inactive has,” said Back, adding that the pseudonymous creator has an estimated 500,000 to 1 cardinal Bitcoin (BTC).

Satoshi’s Bitcoin stash has ignited heated statement among Bitcoin holders acrophobic by the quantum computing threat. On Wednesday, Jameson Lopp and 5 co-authors published a Bitcoin Improvement Proposal aimed astatine restricting the aboriginal question of coins held successful quantum-vulnerable code formats, including older coins whose nationalist keys person already been exposed.

Adam Back, keynote code astatine Paris Blockchain Week successful 2026. Source: Cointelegraph

Blockchain information level Arkham estimates that Nakamoto-linked wallets clasp 1.09 cardinal Bitcoin, presently valued astatine $81.6 billion.

Related: Bernstein says Bitcoin marketplace already priced successful quantum risk

Back sees agelong runway connected quantum

Back said Bitcoin developers and holders inactive person important clip to prepare, arguing that a quantum breakthrough susceptible of threatening Bitcoin signatures is astatine slightest 20 years away.

He argued that today’s quantum computers are “less almighty than a $5 calculator” and that immoderate of their issues go much pressing arsenic these systems scale, specified arsenic their vigor consumption.

Back said that runway should springiness developers and users ample clip to make a post-quantum way and migrate to a caller quantum-resistant modular underpinned by hash-based signatures.

Hash-based signature schemes for Bitcoin, probe paper. Source: Blockstream Research

In December 2025, Back’s Blockstream Research released a paper proposing a hash-based signature strategy that offers a “promising way for securing Bitcoin successful a post-quantum world,” arsenic a quantum-safe replacement for the ECDSA and Schnorr signatures. Under the proposal, information would trust solely connected hash relation assumptions, akin to the ones presently utilized successful Bitcoin’s web design.

The Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) uses elliptic-curve cryptography to verify the authenticity and integrity of a message. Schnorr signatures are different signature strategy praised for enhancing privateness and reducing information size, owed to their quality to harvester aggregate signatures into one.

Magazine: Bitcoin vs. the quantum machine menace — Timeline and solutions (2025–2035)