Michael Saylor, a prominent Bitcoin advocate, has revealed a unique plan for his Bitcoin after his passing. He intends for the private keys to his Bitcoin to be destroyed. In simple terms, private keys are like passwords that provide access to his Bitcoin.
By destroying these keys, no one will be able to access or use his Bitcoin, effectively taking it out of circulation forever. Saylor views this as his way of contributing to the global Bitcoin community. Since Bitcoin has a limited supply, removing some from circulation would make the remaining Bitcoin slightly more valuable for others.
He believes this gesture would benefit the entire Bitcoin community and aligns with his belief in Bitcoin as a vital, decentralized global asset. Michael Saylor is a key figure in the Bitcoin space, renowned for his strong conviction in cryptocurrency and its potential to transform the global financial system.
How Bitcoin works with private keys
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, meaning it isn’t controlled by any government or organization. Ownership is based on cryptographic principles, with each Bitcoin wallet having two main components: a public key and a private key.
The public key is akin to a bank account number. It’s used to receive Bitcoin and can be shared with others. In contrast, the private key functions like a password to access your funds—a string of characters proving ownership of Bitcoin in a specific wallet. Without the private key, no one can move or spend the Bitcoin.
It’s crucial to keep the private key secret. If it’s lost or deliberately destroyed, the Bitcoin associated with it becomes inaccessible forever. Since Bitcoin has a limited supply of 21 million coins, any lost or inaccessible Bitcoin reduces the total circulating supply, making the remaining coins scarcer.
Michael Saylor’s journey into Bitcoin
Michael Saylor is the co-founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy, a business intelligence and analytics firm. Before his Bitcoin journey, Saylor was already a successful entrepreneur, but his company faced challenges in staying competitive in a rapidly changing tech landscape.
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Saylor became increasingly concerned about the U.S. dollar losing its purchasing power. Governments around the world were printing money to stimulate their economies, leading to inflation fears. Saylor began searching for a way to preserve MicroStrategy’s wealth and stumbled upon Bitcoin. He studied it extensively and came to see it as the best store of value, describing it as “digital gold.”
Under Saylor’s leadership, MicroStrategy started buying Bitcoin in August 2020. It was the first publicly traded company to adopt Bitcoin as its primary reserve asset. The company used cash reserves and even issued debt to purchase billions of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin, making it one of the largest holders of Bitcoin globally.
Saylor himself became an outspoken advocate, arguing that Bitcoin is the most secure and scarce form of money ever created. He often highlights Bitcoin’s limited supply, decentralization, and ability to store wealth across generations as its key strengths.
Criticisms of Saylor’s view
Michael Saylor’s idea of destroying his Bitcoin private keys after his death has sparked different opinions, and not everyone agrees with him. One of the criticisms comes from Santiago Torres, a user on X (formerly Twitter). Torres raised a concern about the future of Bitcoin and how advancements in technology could impact the safety of Bitcoin wallets, including those that are no longer active.
Torres is worried about the potential development of quantum computers, a new kind of super-powerful computer that could be much faster than the ones we have today.
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Bitcoin relies on cryptography, a type of math that keeps information safe. The private keys that protect Bitcoin wallets are created using cryptography. It’s almost impossible for current computers to guess a private key because it would take millions of years to try every possible combination.
Quantum computers, if they become advanced enough, might be able to solve these cryptographic problems much faster. This means they could potentially figure out private keys, making Bitcoin wallets vulnerable to hacking.
Torres pointed out that Bitcoin wallets that are no longer active—for example, if their owners lost the private keys or passed away—could be especially at risk in the future. These inactive wallets, including the wallets believed to belong to Bitcoin’s mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, contain a lot of Bitcoin.
Satoshi Nakamoto is estimated to have mined about 1 million Bitcoin in the early days of the network. These Bitcoins have never been moved, and many believe they are lost forever. However, if quantum computers become powerful enough, someone could potentially hack into these inactive wallets and take the Bitcoin. If this happens, the stolen Bitcoin would re-enter circulation, increasing the total supply and potentially reducing the scarcity that gives Bitcoin much of its value.
To address this risk, Torres suggests that Bitcoin’s system would eventually need to be upgraded to a quantum-proof protocol. A quantum-proof protocol would involve updating Bitcoin’s cryptographic algorithms to make them safe from quantum computers. However, this kind of upgrade would need agreement from the global Bitcoin community, which can be a complex process.
Torres’ argument is that if Bitcoin does not make this upgrade in the future, wallets that are inactive—including those with destroyed private keys, like Saylor’s plan—could become vulnerable. This would undo the benefits of removing those Bitcoins from circulation because hackers could “revive” the coins and reintroduce them to the market.
