Bitcoin Core developer Cory Fields submitted a proposal called 'quantum landmines' to deter quantum computer theft

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As of early November 2026, approximately 7.1 million Bitcoin, representing roughly 35% of the circulating supply, sat in legacy addresses with exposed public keys vulnerable to quantum computer attacks

Because the Bitcoin network cannot distinguish between a quantum thief and a true owner, legitimate holders moving vulnerable legacy Bitcoin under Cory Fields' quantum landmine proposal would also be forced to post equal matching collateral

Cory Fields described the quantum landmines framework as a thought experiment that relies on quantum-safe wallets and soft-fork enforcement rules that are not yet written or finalized

Under Cory Fields' proposed landmine rules, stealing 1 BTC using quantum attacks requires matching 1 BTC collateral from a quantum-safe wallet, locking both for 30 days while the legitimate Bitcoin owner reveals secret proof to reclaim funds and forfeit collateral

Quantum landmines utilize a commit/reveal mechanism where an owner secretly prepares a trap in a quantum-safe format before quantum attacks become possible

Satoshi Nakamoto's early Bitcoin holdings are among the potential targets vulnerable to quantum key-reversal attacks because early transactions exposed their public keys onchain

Ethereum researcher Justin Drake announced a roadmap target to implement a full post-quantum upgrade for Ethereum by December 2028

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Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake announced at Devcon 8 that Ethereum's post-quantum security roadmap is accelerated by about a year, from its December 2029 target to December 2028

Bitcoin PIPEs enables binary covenants and pessimistic zero-knowledge proof verification on Bitcoin without changes to Bitcoin's consensus rules

Implementing post-quantum zero-knowledge proof systems in Shielded Bitcoin increases the required transaction size

Bitcoin PIPEs version 2 can enforce binary covenants such as OP_VAULT or OP_CHECKSIGFROMSTACK

Shielded Bitcoin does not require any Bitcoin soft fork or protocol changes to operate

Zcash wallet scanning relies on pre-quantum cryptography that requires upgrading to post-quantum key exchange mechanisms like ML-KEM

A quantum computer capable of breaking elliptic curve cryptography could counterfeit Zcash prior to the implementation of post-quantum soundness

The Zcash post-quantum roadmap consists of three pillars: quantum recoverability, post-quantum privacy, and post-quantum soundness

The Zcash Near Intents integration implemented 100% quantum unlinkability for supported wallets

Quantum recoverability allows users with funds in Zcash shielded pools to safely extract their assets if quantum computers emerge

Quantum recoverability functionality was activated in a Zcash shielded pool prior to October 2026

Google researchers estimated that a sufficiently powerful future quantum computer could theoretically derive a Bitcoin private key from an exposed public key in approximately 9 minutes.

Starknet's underlying ZK-STARK technology relies on hash-based cryptography and programmable accounts that allow adopting new signature schemes without a protocol upgrade.