It depends so much on the exact scenario. I believe we’re imagining radically different QC development scenarios rather than disagreeing on specifics. Eg see below. Bitcoin has maintained its neutrality precisely because it only has value if it maintains its neutrality - the market in general will sell any fork that isn’t clearly in line with the properties of Bitcoin that matter. But there are other market dynamics like supply that matter too. As Pieter puts it, Bitcoin only works if everyone in Bitcoin can agree to the secure set of cryptographic primitives in the system - for those not okay with pre-QC crypto and okay with “you had ten years to move your coins, and even if you forgot we’ll make sure you can still get them in every case we can”, they’ll strongly prefer the fork with fewer coins being sold (not just total supply, coins on the market!). IMO that’s a *very* reasonable position (again, as always, depending on exactly when/how/etc a CRQC is discovered/built), especially because that position *allows more bitcoiners to retain access to their bitcoin*. View quoted note →

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waxwing's avatar
waxwing 1 month ago
i disagree with that framing at the end, it feels illogical. it's not necessary for everyone to agree on what level of security to use, it's a lot more nuanced than that (trivial example: hashed addresses vs not, pre-QC consideration; it was never a trivial question. Remember Nicolas Courtois' scaremongering?). And there is no requirement for any specific users to move out of existing coins to be able to say "bitcoin has the functionality required to keep your coins secure". bitcoin has never yet required people to move their coins, don't forget. And to illustrate more concretely, the part you put in quotation marks: that describes me, I think that, but I don't agree with what follows: I don't prefer the fork "with fewer coins sold", I think that's a non sequitur (not that it can't follow, I mean that it doesn't logically follow), *and* I think it's the ethically wrong position, too, *and* I think long term it's a vector of failure for the project in its goals.