In December 2024, billionaire and investor Chamath Palihapitiya warned that the SHA-256 encryption in Bitcoin could be cracked within two to five years — considering the pace of quantum technology development.
This warning came after Google introduced its 105-qubit Willow chip — a breakthrough in the field. According to Palihapitiya's estimates, about 8000 such chips could theoretically break Bitcoin's security. Although scaling to such a level is a complex task, he urged blockchain developers to start working on updating hashing algorithms now.