Blockchain Developers Are Racing to Protect Against the Quantum Threat. Here's What It Means for Bitcoin and Ethereum Investors.
Key PointsNo top-20 cryptocurrency is fully quantum-safe yet, but Bitcoin and Ethereum both have upgrade paths underway.
Blockchain developers are racing against the clock to safeguard against the burgeoning threat posed by quantum computers. Imagine a locksmith who can deduce the exact shape of a lock's key simply by observing the exterior. This is akin to what a sufficiently advanced quantum computer could do to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) networks.
Every cryptocurrency transaction involves a public key, which can be reverse-engineered to reveal the corresponding private key using a powerful quantum machine. Today, such a computer would take a normal computer longer than the universe has existed to crack the code. However, a quantum computer running Shor's algorithm could do it in a matter of hours.
Google Quantum AI, a division of Alphabet, has done the math, estimating that between 1,200 to 1,450 logical qubits would be needed, with a runtime of 18 to 23 minutes, assuming superconducting hardware. The Ethereum Foundation and Stanford researchers have signed off on these findings.
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