To Satoshi Nakamoto: The quantum "tomb robber" is about to appear, what will you choose?

Written by Thejaswini

Compiled by: Vernacular Blockchain

Dear Satoshi Nakamoto,

Since you disappeared from the digital world 15 years ago, you left behind one of the greatest mysteries in finance: hundreds of thousands, perhaps more than a million, of bitcoins that remain untouched and unspent.

These bitcoins are worth a fortune and are considered by many to be the world's largest unclaimed digital legacy.

I’m not writing to ask who you are or where you’ve been. I’m writing because your Bitcoin is about to become the ultimate test case for digital resurrection, and the outcome may not be what you want.

Neighbors of the Digital Cemetery

Satoshi Nakamoto, you are not the only one in the cryptocurrency afterlife. Conservative estimates put the number of bitcoins at 3-4 million, which have been lost forever in a digital grave. Forgotten keys, damaged hard drives, and the dead who took their secrets to their literal graves.

James Howells has spent a decade searching through 110,000 tons of trash in Wales to find his 8,000 bitcoins. Stefan Thomas has only two password attempts left before he loses access to his 7,002 bitcoins forever.

There are also hardware graveyards. Hard drives crash, USB sticks are lost, and computers are discarded. The 2017 Parity wallet vulnerability accidentally froze more than 500,000 ETH, showing how software errors can create digital mausoleums in an instant. The collapse of the Mt. Gox exchange platform, which has 850,000 Bitcoins still being fought over by creditors, is the most famous exchange platform theft in history.

But your approximately 1 million Bitcoins far outweigh all of that. It’s the ultimate digital mausoleum, frozen since the dawn of Bitcoin.

While others have lost their Bitcoins through negligence or disaster, you've chosen to leave them dormant. Every day you don't move them, the world debates whether you're dead, imprisoned, or secretly watching your creation.

Quantum Tomb Raider is Coming

Satoshi, I have something to tell you that may make you uncomfortable: your Bitcoin is at risk.

Quantum computers could crack them in a few years, if not sooner. Experts estimate that 25% of all bitcoins — more than 4 million — are stored in quantum-vulnerable addresses. Your bitcoins are among the most exposed.

The creator of Bitcoin could become one of the most high-profile victims of quantum computing in the cryptocurrency space.

While you remain silent, the Bitcoin development community is racing against time to build quantum defenses. BIP-360 proposes quantum-resistant addresses. The team is exploring reactivating OP_CAT and integrating STARK technology. They are building the armor you need for your creation. However, as of June 2025, there is no formal BIP proposal for widely adopted quantum-resistant addresses.

If a quantum computer cracks your address, the Bitcoin community will be powerless, and you know it. There is no panic button, no admin key, no way to freeze or destroy Bitcoin. Your Bitcoins will remain quantum vulnerable until you move them to a safe address, or a quantum computer "moves" them for you.

Modern inheritance technologies could prevent most bitcoins from being lost, but they can’t resurrect an existing digital corpse. Platforms like Sarcophagus offer a “dead man’s switch” that releases wallet information to beneficiaries. Casa offers multi-signature inheritance planning.

But these solutions require advance planning. They cannot retroactively recover bitcoins that have already been lost. For the millions of bitcoins that are already in a digital grave, inheritance technology cannot provide salvation.

Your situation is unique. Your Bitcoins are not strictly lost, they are just dormant. If you are still alive and have the authority, you can move them at any time. This uncertainty makes your Bitcoins the most psychologically significant asset in existence.

Legal excavation attempt?

The courts have been mostly powerless in the face of the finality of encryption technology. James Howells’ £600m claim against Newport City Council was dismissed. Stefan Thomas could not force anyone to crack his IronKey encryption.

The law recognizes Bitcoin as property, but property without the keys to it is not equal to inaccessible property. The court can make many orders, but it cannot order mathematics to yield.

However, your case is different. If someone claims to be you or your heirs, they will need to prove their identity by moving your Bitcoin. This is the ultimate identity verification.

Economic earthquake

Satoshi Nakamoto, your dormant Bitcoins are more than just digital archaeology.

Lost Bitcoins create artificial scarcity. Your ~1 million Bitcoins, plus the millions of others that are permanently lost, effectively keep the Bitcoin supply below 21 million. This scarcity supports a higher price for the remaining Bitcoins.

If your Bitcoin were suddenly returned to circulation — through quantum recovery, legal process, or your own return — it would trigger a massive supply shock.

Yes, moving your Bitcoins will not technically increase the supply, they are already on the ledger. But moving Bitcoins that have been dormant for 15 years will cause huge psychological and market shocks.

Bitcoin’s scarcity narrative relies in part on the assumption that “lost Bitcoin is lost forever.” Your “resurrection” would fundamentally change investors’ perception of Bitcoin’s long-term value.

Despite various avenues of “resurrection,” the most likely outcome is that your Bitcoins will remain as they are: visible on the blockchain, but forever immobile.

Whether by choice, death, or loss of access, your coins have become the most powerful symbol of Bitcoin. They represent the permanence of cryptographic promises and the mystique of digital identity.

Moving them would provide answers the community may not want to know. Keeping them dormant would preserve the mythology that makes Bitcoin more than a normal payment system.

Your choice, Satoshi

So, I want to ask: What are you going to do?

If you are still alive and watching, you probably have five years until quantum computers become a realistic threat. You can transfer your Bitcoin to a quantum-resistant address, proving you are still active without revealing your identity.

If you are no longer alive, your Bitcoins face an uncertain fate. Quantum thieves, community destruction, or eternal dormancy - these are not your options.

If "Satoshi Nakamoto" was never a person but a collective or institution, then these bitcoins may have been intended to be permanently untouchable - this is the ultimate demonstration of Bitcoin's deflationary properties.

The Bitcoin community debates whether to destroy your Bitcoins or protect them, but without your intentions, they cannot decide. Are you an individual with digital property rights, or is your asset a pseudonym that has become public property?

Your coins are Bitcoin’s greatest governance test. Not because they are vulnerable to quantum attacks, a problem that can be solved. But because your mysterious absence forces the community to decide Bitcoin’s responsibility to its absent creator, and whether true decentralization means letting the math take its course, even when it involves your wealth.

Quantum computers are coming. Graverobbers are preparing. The community is watching.

After 15 years of silence, maybe it's time to say something.