Opinion: OG Will Take Over Satoshi Nakamoto's Holdings if Bitcoin is Cracked by Quantum Computers

Following rumors, a heated debate unfolded on social media last Saturday regarding the potential impact of quantum computers invading Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin wallet and selling off his holdings. This debate stemmed from a Bitcoin price chart shared by YouTuber Josh Otten, showing BTC plummeting to $3. He stated that if a powerful enough quantum computer successfully stole the approximately 1 million BTC held by Bitcoin's anonymous founder Satoshi Nakamoto and dumped it on the market, this scenario could happen.

In response, long-time Bitcoin holder Willy Woo stated that many OGs (early Bitcoin holders) would buy in during such a flash crash. The Bitcoin network would survive; most Bitcoins would not immediately face risks. Woo further pointed out that around 4 million BTC are stored in P2PK (Pay-to-Public-Key) addresses, including Satoshi Nakamoto's Bitcoin. These addresses directly expose the full public key when spending, making them theoretically more vulnerable to quantum attacks.

He added that once the full public key of a Bitcoin wallet is publicly revealed on the chain, it could face quantum attack risks in the future—because assuming sufficient computing power, quantum computers theoretically can derive the private key from the public key. In contrast, newer Bitcoin address types are less susceptible to quantum attacks because they do not expose the full public key on the chain; if the public key is unknown, quantum computers cannot generate the corresponding private key based on it.

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