According to Grayscale’s head of research, the challenge of solving the quantum threat to Bitcoin may be more social than technical, especially if the community fails to reach agreement on certain controversial issues.
On March 30, Google published a paper that sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency industry by suggesting that a quantum computer could potentially break the cryptography that protects Bitcoin (BTC) using much smaller resources than previously thought.
However, the head of grayscale research, Zach Pandl, suggested Bitcoin’s problem is not due to its technical solution, as “Bitcoin is lower risk than other cryptocurrencies” because it uses the UTXO model and proof-of-work consensus, it has no native sharp contracts, and some address types are not vulnerable to quantum attacks.
Instead, the challenge for the community would be to decide what to do next, Pandl said.
The Bitcoin community is hotly debating what to do with ancient, dormant coins, in particular the approximately 1.7 million BTC locked in early P2PK addresses, including the estimated 1 million BTC of Satoshi’s stash, now worth approximately $68 billion.
The Bitcoin community has three options
The Bitcoin community must decide what to do with coins for which the private key has been lost or is otherwise inaccessible, Pandl wrote.
They have three main options: burning the coins, deliberately slowing their release by limiting the level of spending from sensitive addresses, or doing nothing.
“They are all conceptually feasible, but the challenge is making the decision, and the Bitcoin community has a history of contentious debates over protocol changes, including last year’s dispute over image data stored in blocks.”
Pandl was referring to the major brawl that erupted in 2023 over the exploit of block space for Bitcoin Ordinals, a technology that allows data such as text and images to be entered into satoshis, Bitcoin’s smallest unit.
Two years later, the debate may have died down, but both sides still have different views.
Related: Scientists say quantum computers could theoretically be ready by 2030
There’s no danger now, but it’s time to start
Pandl cautioned that “it’s time to get started” and that blockchains need to embrace post-quantum cryptography, echoing Google’s sentiments.
Both Solana and XRP Ledger are already experimenting with post-quantum cryptography, Pandl wrote. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation published its post-quantum roadmap in February.
Pandl concluded that investors “shouldn’t worry for now,” but it’s time to accelerate efforts to prepare for our post-quantum future.
“In our opinion, there is no security risk to public blockchains from quantum computers at this time.”
Warehouse: No one knows if quantum-secure cryptography will even work
