Hal Finney ALS Fund: 14 BTC untouched since 2014 / quantum threat looms

Been a while since I last posted. Some of you might recall me, while others probably don’t. Back in 2018, I tried to tackle this issue but didn’t get anywhere. Unfortunately, that’s still the case: the Hal Finney ALS Fund has about 14.14 BTC sitting at 1JsnZLEGgLJY7rbDdaKTzC2JyvfaKUpF5p, and it was never handed over to the ALS Foundation. Back then, it was nearly $100K. Now it’s sitting at around $960K. Here’s the backstory: After Hal Finney passed away due to ALS in 2014, a group that included Erik Voorhees, Jason King (from Sean's Outpost), Roger Ver, BitPay, and the Bitcoin Foundation set up a fundraiser. Donations poured in, but then the Bitcoin Foundation just fell apart (Shrem, Karpeles, bankruptcy). It looks like the key to this wallet got lost in all the turmoil. Those funds haven’t been touched in 12 years. So why am I bringing this up again now? This morning, Google announced they’ve made a breakthrough, reducing the quantum resources needed to break ECDLP-256 by 20 times. They’re eyeing a timeline for viable quantum computers around 2029. They even published a zero-knowledge proof confirming their circuit works. The address for Hal's memorial fund is P2PKH (a "1 address") meaning the public key is out there for anyone to see. It’s in a really risky category of addresses for when (not if) CRQCs come into play. Here’s what I’m planning to do: 1. Reach out to the folks who were initially involved, like Erik Voorhees, BitPay, and Roger Ver, to see if anyone remembers the key, or if they can definitively say it's lost. If I can refresh someone’s memory and find the key, I’ll connect them to the ALS Foundation to sort this out.

I don't think you recall what the H means in P2PKH The pubkey are hashed and can only be known once the coins are spent. What you are talking about is P2PK 20 X of today doesn't really count much to the amount of stable qubit needed. I don't believe Bitcoin development Is that static to see quantum threat on P2PK And wait till it starts affecting Hash pubkeys (which is way harder than the former)

Thank you for the correction, Ambatman.  I am not an expert on Bitcoin and address types, nor quantum computing, but I was recently reminded about the Hal Finney / ALS funds.  So earlier today, when I saw the Google blog post, I decided to log in here to post my intention to make solid contact with those that might know who, where, if, etc. a key is floating around out there, and try to get those coins into the right hands.  It's certainly my hope that someone, somewhere has a record of the private key for that address and can put those funds to good use in researching ALS.  But if the key is lost, I wanted to indicate that whatever future person or technology can access that address, that they do the right thing and see to it that those 14 BTC go to the foundation that was intended.  Maybe silly to try to appeal to a potential future quantum cracker, but there is no harm in appealing for some decency. I also believe that Bitcoin will stay way ahead of the quantum curve, it only makes sense.  However, I thought I had read that once quantum can break P2PK, it is not much more quantum computationally intensive to break P2PKH.  If that's incorrect, even better.  While Google research might be posting and self-imposing a "cooling off" period, not everyone will do the same. I hope that doesn't even come into play with respect to these particular coins.  I will be posting back when I have any news to report on this fund.