"The quantum computing threat to Bitcoin is not primarily a technical problem - it is a political one. The community must act now because the governance process moves at the pace of a state legislature."
"A sufficiently powerful quantum computer running Shor's algorithm could derive a private key from an exposed public key, enabling theft at scale. Approximately 1.7 million BTC currently sit in legacy Pay-to-Public-Key addresses, making them the most vulnerable targets."
"Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360 introduces a new output type called Pay-to-Merkle-Root that removes public key exposure from standard transactions. This proposal has been merged into Bitcoin's development repository and is under active review."
Bitcoin's security relies on elliptic curve cryptography, which could be compromised by quantum computers. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could derive private keys from public keys, posing a significant risk. Current estimates suggest that a quantum computer with fewer than 500,000 qubits could break Bitcoin's encryption. Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360 introduces a new output type to mitigate this risk by removing public key exposure. The governance process for implementing such changes is slow, highlighting the urgency for the community to act before quantum threats materialize.
Read at Bitcoin Magazine
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