Bitcoin's Gold Advantage Under Threat from Quantum Computing

On-chain analyst Willy Woo has warned that quantum computing poses a significant threat to Bitcoin's value proposition, specifically its advantage over gold.

The warning comes as quantum computing advances from a niche concern to a mainstream risk factor in institutional portfolios. According to Woo, markets are starting to price in the quantum threat, which could undermine Bitcoin's scarcity narrative and potentially unlock 4 million lost coins, equivalent to about 25-30% of the total supply.

Woo estimated that there is a 25% chance that the network will agree to freeze these coins via a hard fork, but emphasized that there is a 75% likelihood that they will remain untouched. This could result in a structural discount on Bitcoin's valuation versus gold for the next five to 15 years.

Core developers and cryptographers have stressed that Bitcoin does not face an imminent doomsday situation and has time to adapt through a phased process. The emerging roadmap for a post-quantum migration involves steering the network toward new address formats and key management practices over a multi-year transition.