Cory Fields says quantum landmines could make Bitcoin theft a losing bet

Key points

• Fields posted the proposal to the Bitcoin development mailing list on 4 November, calling it a thought experiment rather than a finished upgrade.
• A landmine would let an owner reveal a pre-Q-Day proof during a challenge period, 30 days in his example, and claim the thief's matching collateral.
• A staked auction would let bidders register in advance against old wallets, with the vulnerable coins destroyed rather than paid out.

Bitcoin developer Cory Fields has proposed quantum landmines and two auction designs that would make stealing from vulnerable wallets a costly gamble, according to Decrypt. In a 4 November post to the Bitcoin development mailing list, Fields described the ideas as thought experiments rather than a completed upgrade.

Under the landmine idea, an owner of an old wallet would create a small quantum-safe output holding a hidden proof that they controlled the private key before quantum theft was possible. A future attacker using a quantum computer would have to add matching Bitcoin as collateral, and the owner could reveal the proof during a challenge period, 30 days in Fields's example, to take both amounts.

Because attackers could not tell which wallets hold these traps, a successful key recovery could end in a loss. The same rule could also make it harder for honest owners without spare Bitcoin to move their own legacy coins.

For coins whose keys are already lost, Fields suggests a staked auction in which bidders lock quantum-safe Bitcoin against a specific wallet in advance. A challenger could then claim part of an attacker's collateral while the vulnerable coins are destroyed. A third option, a sats auction, would need no advance stake but would turn a spend into a contest resembling a notorious auction game.

Fields has published no implementation or schedule.

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