Bitcoin developer Cory Fields outlined “quantum landmines” and two auction designs in a November 4 mailing-list post. He called them thought experiments, not a completed upgrade. Under his proposed rules, someone trying to spend a vulnerable wallet’s coins would have to post matching Bitcoin collateral, which an owner with a hidden, earlier proof of control could claim during a challenge period.
The landmine would work only if the owner prepared it before a quantum attack became possible and responded in time. Honest owners might also need matching collateral to move their own coins; the auctions could destroy vulnerable coins or impose losses on bidders. None of the protections exists in Bitcoin today. They would require quantum-safe wallets, new consensus rules and agreement on activation, and Fields has supplied no implementation or schedule.
