For years, Bitcoin supporters have held the view that some of the 21 million coins are irretrievably lost, locked away forever in wallets with forgotten keys. These lost coins are seen as a further reduction in the circulating supply, making Bitcoin even more scarce. But what if that's not quite true?
The rise of quantum computing and breakthroughs in cryptographic techniques have given rise to speculation that no one Bitcoin is not actually “lost.” As computing power advances, the security underlying Bitcoin’s oldest key pairs, created using what may soon be obsolete cryptography, could be compromised.
On the one hand, Bitcoin developers are well prepared to implement protocol updates that will protect active wallets. However, long-abandoned wallets, like those of Satoshi Nakamoto and others unlikely to migrate to new encryption schemes could become targets.
Quantum computing could be so advanced that “key miners” could extract private keys from public keys, effectively hacking those forgotten wallets. This would return dormant bitcoins to circulation through new owners.
One day, the hunt for such old wallets could become a competitive market, changing the understanding of "sleeping wallets" to wallets that will sooner or later be unlocked by treasure hunters.