Opinion: If Bitcoin is cracked by quantum computing, OG will take over Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings

Last Saturday, there was intense discussion on social media regarding the potential impact of "quantum computers possibly invading Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin wallet and dumping his holdings." This debate originated from a Bitcoin price chart shared by YouTuber Josh Otten, which showed BTC plummeting to $3. He stated that if a sufficiently powerful quantum computer were to successfully steal the approximately 1 million BTC held by the anonymous Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto and dump it onto the market, such a scenario is possible.

In response, long-term Bitcoin holder Willy Woo said, "Many OGs (early Bitcoin holders) would buy in during such a flash crash. The Bitcoin network will survive; most Bitcoin will not face immediate risk." Woo further pointed out that about 4 million BTC are stored in P2PK (Pay-to-Public-Key) addresses, which include Satoshi's Bitcoin. These types of addresses expose the full public key directly on-chain when spent, making them theoretically more susceptible to quantum attacks.

He added that once the full public key of a Bitcoin wallet is exposed on-chain, it could face quantum attack risks in the future—because, assuming sufficient computational power, a quantum computer could theoretically derive the private key from the public key. In contrast, newer types of Bitcoin addresses are not as easily susceptible to quantum attacks because they do not expose the full public key on-chain; if the public key is unknown, a quantum computer cannot generate the corresponding private key from it.