Bitcoin's 'your keys, your coins' promise just got an expiry date from a new developer proposal
Airfind news item
By Omkar Godbole
Published on April 15, 2026.
Bitcoin's promise that no one can touch your coins without your private key is being challenged by a new developer proposal from the developer community, named Bitcoin Improvement Proposal (IP)-361, which could force bitcoin holders to migrate their coins to new quantum-resistant addresses or face having their coins frozen permanently by the network itself. The proposal, updated in Bitcoin's official proposal repository with the title "Post Quantum Migration and Legacy Signature Sunset," is part of measures to countermeasures against future quantum computers that could compromise Bitcoin's blockchain and steal your coins. This comes after a report by Google suggested that a sufficiently powerful quantum machine could require less firepower to compromise the Bitcoin blockchain than initially estimated. The proposed migration plan involves three phases, with Phase A stopping new bitcoin from sending new bitcoin to old-style, quantum-vulnerable addresses three years after potential activation, and Phase B, where users would be unable to spend from these addresses, rendering them completely invalid. If successful, these users could prove ownership using a zero-knowledge proof to prove their ownership without revealing their private key.
Read Original Article