Consortium Aims to Protect Bitcoin from Quantum Computing Threat

Nine major financial and crypto companies have formed a consortium to fund Bitcoin security research and development focused on quantum computing defense. The Bitcoin Security Consortium, as it is called, will contribute $15 million over three years to support the work of core developers.

The members of the consortium include BlackRock, Coinbase, Strategy, Anchorage Digital, ARK Invest, Block, Blockstream, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Galaxy. Each member will fund its own chosen researchers and developers directly, without any direction from the consortium as a whole.

This move aims to address the long-term security of Bitcoin, which could be vulnerable to quantum computers capable of breaking its cryptography. Currently, around 6.9 million BTC ($450 billion) are stored in addresses that would be compromised if such a computer were to exist.