A lot of people still think quantum computing is something way off in the future, but honestly the pace of progress has been surprising. It’s moving faster than most of us expected.right now, bitcoin and most other cryptocurrencies are built on elliptic curve cryptography . The problem is, once a public key shows up on-chain, a powerful enough quantum computer could, at least in theory, reverse it and figure out the private key.
Now,i am not saying this happens tomorrow,but if bitcoin does not upgrade its cryptography in the next 3–5 years, the risk gets very real. Quantum hardware is improving step by step, and once it crosses a certain threshold, the current security model won’t hold up.
We’re talking about the world’s fifth largest asset here. If it doesn’t adapt, the idea that its security could collapse almost overnight and bitcoin price will go to zero.
The government, banks, airlines, and major industries should be more worried about quantum computing than Bitcoin.
As of 2024, the most advanced quantum computers can process around 1,000 qubits, but estimates suggest that breaking Bitcoin’s ECDSA encryption would require a machine with 10 million to 300 million fault-tolerant qubits, a goal that remains years or even decades away.
There is still time to devise countermeasures against the threat of these powerful computers. Hopefully, the Bitcoin system will be a transition to post-quantum cryptography.