Elon Musk recently sparked a conversation about whether quantum computing could eventually crack Bitcoin’s SHA-256 encryption, especially after IBM shared some new research in the field. In response, Grok weighed in with insights backed by NIST, IBM, and other experts.
The takeaway? No need to panic—yet.
The chances of quantum computers breaking SHA-256 within the next five years are close to zero. Even looking ahead to 2035, the probability remains under 10%. Why? Because it would require millions of highly stable, error-corrected quantum bits, while today’s most advanced quantum systems can only handle about 1,000 noisy qubits.
So for now, Bitcoin’s underlying hash function is still solidly secure.