Quantum Computers vs. Bitcoin
$BTC is currently secured primarily by elliptic curve cryptography (ECDSA/Schnorr), ensuring that private keys cannot be derived from public keys using classical computational means. However, quantum computing—specifically through Shor’s algorithm—could break this asymmetry if machines reach thousands to tens of thousands of qubits and hundreds of billions of quantum gates.
Current quantum hardware is still in the research phase, with chip capacities reaching hundreds—not the millions—of qubits needed to crack ECDSA. Yet the idea of “harvest now – decrypt later” is gaining traction, meaning data encrypted today could be broken decades later as technology advances (Forbes, Investopedia).
In 2024, the U.S. standards body NIST approved the first three post-quantum cryptography (PQC) algorithms to replace ECC/RSA (Schneier.com, Wikipedia, The Times).
For Bitcoin and broader blockchain infrastructure, transitioning to PQC represents a critical architectural shift requiring coordination across developers, node operators, and users.
Quantum computing poses a real and growing threat to Bitcoin. Without a proactive shift to post-quantum protocols, the network risks significant security breaches.
