- Experts have sounded the alarm over Bitcoins vulnerability to future quantum attacks
- Deloitte claims that around 25% of Bitcoin is already at risk due to exposed public keys
- The decentralized nature of Bitcoin makes coordinated action slow and difficult
Bitcoins potential exposure to quantum computing attacks has, to date, been largely theoretical, but a group of influential Bitcoiners believes that the community needs to take action now, before it is too late. According to Deloitte, a significant portion of Bitcoins supply is already vulnerable, and fixing it will require an extraordinary level of global cooperation. However, attendees of a private luncheon following the Bitcoin 2025 conference have urged the community to deal with it now rather than kick the can down the road.
A New Kind of Threat
It wasnt long ago that quantum computers seemed like science fiction, given their use of the bizarre rules of quantum physics to process information in ways that traditional machines simply cant. Thats a problem for Bitcoin, which relies on cryptographic techniques like ECDSA and SHA-256 to protect user fundsif a quantum computer can break those algorithms, private keys could be exposed, and with them, billions in digital currency.
Deloitte estimates that about one in four bitcoins sit in wallets where the public key has already been revealed. That means if quantum decryption ever becomes practical, those coins could be the first to fall. The concept of the Bitcoin blockchain being attacked in this manner was, until recently, thought to be decades away. However, recent research shows that cracking the Bitcoin code could take far fewer resources than first thought.
Why Coordination Is So Hard
During the luncheon, legendary Bitcoiner Jameson Lopp warned that the threat is growing:
Its difficult to say that we have decades because it seems like the timelines are getting compressed. The real question is: Can Bitcoin come together and find consensus on how to mitigate this threat before it really becomes an existential crisis?
The biggest issue isnt just technicalits political and social. Bitcoin isnt run by a company or a CEO; its a loose collection of developers, miners, exchanges, and individual users scattered across the globe. To move the entire system toward quantum-resistant cryptography, all of them would have to agree on a solution and take action. Anduro Senior Protocol Engineer Hunter Beast, also at the lunch, summed up the issue, calling it a a huge coordination problem and emphasizing preparedness over denial.
Even if the community came together, finding a solution wouldnt be easy. Wallets would need to be upgraded, and coins moved to safer addresses. But what about dormant wallets? Some of the largest holdings, including those tied to Bitcoins creator Satoshi Nakamoto, havent been touched in years. If those coins arent moved, they could be permanently at risk.
The threat of quantum computing has gone from an if to a when, but Bitcoins security for a post-quantum world wont just test its technologyit will test whether its community can work together when it truly counts.
