Whenever a new quantum chip gets announced, people ask me “Is Bitcoin dead?”
Short answer: no. Longer answer: it’s complicated, but not in the way most people think.
Quantum computing is real. It’s progressing. And yes, a powerful enough quantum computer could theoretically derive your private key from your public key using something called Shor’s algorithm. That part is true.
But the gap between where quantum hardware is today (~1,200 qubits) and what you’d actually need to crack Bitcoin (at least 100,000 — likely millions) is enormous. We’re talking orders of magnitude.
What most people miss is that Bitcoin isn’t just sitting there waiting to get broken. BIP-360 was just merged into the official Bitcoin repository this month — it’s a quantum-resistant output type that lays the groundwork for post-quantum signatures built on the same NIST-standardized algorithms that governments are adopting. Bitcoin has upgraded before. SegWit in 2017, Taproot in 2021. It does it slowly and carefully, because that’s the whole point.
The other thing worth remembering: if a quantum computer could break Bitcoin, it could break every bank, every military system, and every encrypted message on earth. Bitcoin wouldn’t be the first target and it would be the least of our problems.
The threat is real, on a timeline of years to decades. Not months. And Bitcoin is already preparing.
#Bitcoin #QuantumComputing #BTC #Cryptography
Short answer: no. Longer answer: it’s complicated, but not in the way most people think.
Quantum computing is real. It’s progressing. And yes, a powerful enough quantum computer could theoretically derive your private key from your public key using something called Shor’s algorithm. That part is true.
But the gap between where quantum hardware is today (~1,200 qubits) and what you’d actually need to crack Bitcoin (at least 100,000 — likely millions) is enormous. We’re talking orders of magnitude.
What most people miss is that Bitcoin isn’t just sitting there waiting to get broken. BIP-360 was just merged into the official Bitcoin repository this month — it’s a quantum-resistant output type that lays the groundwork for post-quantum signatures built on the same NIST-standardized algorithms that governments are adopting. Bitcoin has upgraded before. SegWit in 2017, Taproot in 2021. It does it slowly and carefully, because that’s the whole point.
The other thing worth remembering: if a quantum computer could break Bitcoin, it could break every bank, every military system, and every encrypted message on earth. Bitcoin wouldn’t be the first target and it would be the least of our problems.
The threat is real, on a timeline of years to decades. Not months. And Bitcoin is already preparing.
#Bitcoin #QuantumComputing #BTC #Cryptography
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