This Bitcoin developer's solution can make quantum hackers lose money even when they steal coins.

Bitcoin developer Cory Fields has proposed "quantum mines," a game-theoretic defense under which a quantum attacker trying to move vulnerable coins must first post an equal-sized anti-quantum bond in BTC, with the coins and bond locked for a challenge period (e.g., 30 days) during which the true owner can reveal a pre-committed ownership proof and claim both. The design, posted to the Bitcoin developers' mailing list as a thought experiment rather than a finalized upgrade, targets early P2PK addresses and any address whose public key is exposed on first spend, and adds two fallback auctions for lost-key coins: a staking auction in which challengers who pre-lock anti-quantum BTC can seize part of the attacker's bond while the vulnerable coins are destroyed, and a "satoshi auction" in which the top bidder takes the coins and the second-highest bid is forfeited, creating a dollar-auction trap that makes attacks unprofitable. It matters because it avoids a hard fork or blanket freeze of old coins, but imposes real costs: legitimate holders must also post equal collateral to move old coins after Q-Day, offline holders can miss challenge windows, and coins may be burned in auctions. The proposal requires quantum-safe wallet commitments plus consensus rules enforcing collateral, waiting periods, recovery transactions and auctions, and Fields has not specified code, activation timing or bond sizing; some parts could arrive via soft fork.