Bitcoin's Quantum Computing Threat: Community Races Against Time for Post-Quantum Fixes
A March 2026 Google Quantum AI paper has brought forward the estimated resources needed to crack Bitcoin's signatures, sparking concern about the cryptocurrency's vulnerability to quantum computers.
The cryptography protecting over a trillion dollars of digital assets is now on a clock, with researchers arguing that a useful machine could arrive by the end of the decade. Project Eleven estimates that roughly one-third of all BTC (almost 7 million coins) sits in addresses whose public keys are already visible on-chain.
Developer Paul Sztorc is proposing a controversial fork called eCash, which would reassign 500,000 of Satoshi's dormant coins on the new chain to early investors and developers. Critics argue against the redistribution, while others question whether Bitcoin needs protecting at all.
The Bitcoin community is working on base-layer fixes, including BIP-360 and BIP-361, to address the issue. These proposals aim to add post-quantum cryptography and migrate legacy addresses. However, some experts, like Jameson Lopp, argue that letting an attacker sweep dormant coins amounts to 'theft from everyone.'