Bitcoin Developers Caution Against Rushing Post-Quantum Upgrade

Samson Mow, CEO of JAN3 and Bitcoin developer, has cautioned against rushing to adopt post-quantum (PQ) cryptography for the Bitcoin network. In a recent statement on X, Mow argued that Bitcoin's conservative development philosophy should remain unchanged despite concerns over quantum computing.

Mow pointed out that replacing Bitcoin's current ECDSA and Schnorr signature schemes with PQ alternatives too early could inadvertently weaken the network against conventional computers. He emphasized that 'hastily changing from ECDSA/Schnorr to PQ signatures may make Bitcoin vulnerable to classical computing attacks today.'

According to Mow, Bitcoin should only migrate to PQ signatures when there's a clear threat from quantum computers actually existing. He advocated for slow and steady development, saying 'the time to change to PQ signatures is when there's a clear threat (QCs exist), not before.'

Mow also praised ongoing research by Blockstream cryptographers, highlighting that hash-based schemes have 'a smaller mathematical attack surface than lattice-based alternatives like HAWK.' However, he noted that neither the recent discoveries of AI model Mythos Preview nor the improvements to a known private-key recovery attack targeting HAWK pose an immediate threat.