EU watchdogs warn quantum computers could pick crypto’s locks

European financial regulators have issued an alert that quantum computing advancements could jeopardize the cryptography safeguarding blockchains. The European Banking Authority, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, and European Securities and Markets Authority jointly released a risk update, highlighting that quantum computing could compromise systems securing transactions, communications, and databases.

This warning stemmed from a more thorough analysis conducted by Google Quantum AI, which in March projected that cracking the cryptography underpinning numerous cryptocurrencies might necessitate roughly 20 times fewer physical qubits than previous estimates. Qubits, the fundamental units of quantum computers, exist in a state of superposition, enabling quantum machines to process vast amounts of data simultaneously.

As of now, no computer possesses the capability to execute such an attack. For crypto enthusiasts, the primary worry is that a future quantum computer could potentially derive a private key from an exposed public key, thereby authorizing unauthorized transactions. Bitcoin developers proposed in February to phase out the network’s current signatures and limit the use of unmigrated funds five years post-implementation, but the proposal remains unadopted.

In response, the Ethereum Foundation aims to fortify Ethereum against quantum attacks across its execution, consensus, and data layers by December 2029. Notably, StarkWare recently tested a quantum-resistant Bitcoin transaction on its mainnet.