Bitcoin developers have a solution to the threats of quantum computing. The most difficult question is whether the network can connect at the same time. The threat of quantum computing to Bitcoin is not just a technical problem – it’s a political one.
These are the main points of the new review printed and Guillaume Girard, former partner at UTXO Management, a Bitcoin-focused investment firm and subsidiary of Nakamoto Inc. In a piece called “Bitcoin and Quantum Threat: A Non-Technical Guide,” Girard argues that while cryptographically compatible quantum computer (CRQC) may not want to break the secret, but CRQC should not reach the level of encryption. The community needs to act now – because the administration is in trouble.
Bitcoin security is stable elliptic curve cryptographywhich protects the private keys that control access to the wallet. A computer powerful enough to use Shor’s algorithm can derive the private key from the public key, enabling theft on a large scale. Google’s Quantum AI team printed A study in March showed that a machine with less than 500,000 qubits – which is below the previous figure of 10 million – could break this encryption, with Google’s internal target for long-term planning to be implemented in 2029. About 1.7 million BTC currently reside in private addresses (PKK) on the chain, making them the most vulnerable.
The quantum answer is in the Bitcoin table
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal 360 (BIP-360), by Hunter Beast, activate a new version of the release called Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR) that removes the exposure of public keys for regular transactions. The proposal has been included in the Bitcoin development repository and is being actively reviewed.
A peer review, BIP-361, by Jameson Lopp, map A three-stage migration away from the signatures at risk, although Part B of the plan can freeze coins in wallets that fail to migrate within a five-year window.
Another concept called Hourglass would allow a large number of attackers to move the stolen coins in small blocks – perhaps one BTC per block – to disrupt the economic collapse and transfer the payments to miners.
The most serious problem involves money that cannot be transferred: lost wallets, inactive storage, and about 1.1 million BTC due to Satoshi Nakamoto. Girard cites two solutions, each with serious problems.
The former would burn coins at high-risk addresses after the deadline — a regulatory move that critics say presents a dangerous example of protocol monitoring built on political issues. The second, Hourglass, accepts that theft will happen but prevents the flow of stolen money to reduce the price of the stock and disrupt the market.
There is no solution that is clean, and all of them require the same thing: a great cooperation between users, miners, miners, and – for the first time – those who have large institutions like BlackRock.
Organizations are already taking action
The debate has gone beyond the mailing list. Jeffries removed His entire 10% Bitcoin distribution of pension model history in January 2026, and the global equity strategist Christopher Wood mentions the increased risk as a risk to the long-term Bitcoin cryptographic basis.
Michael Saylor of Strategy he announced The Bitcoin Security Program to join the entire security team in quantitative planning, classifying this issue as a technical issue rather than an emergency. Citi’s cybersecurity team has put a multi-billion-dollar price tag on the risk of a massive crypto boom.
Girard’s conclusion is measured: the real race is between the time CRQC can break Bitcoin and the time the community can initiate a soft fork. Based on the current situation, he believes that Bitcoin is going well – but he sees that if the actions of the developers seem to be too slow with only consumers and institutions, the stakeholders have the purpose and financial weight to improve the cooperation outside the current situation.
A Bitcoin margin buyer is no longer a seller; and governments and property managers who cannot tolerate inaction. Many experts still see an effective attack several years away, but as Girard points out, the fog of war makes the timing unclear – and in this war, waiting for certainty is dangerous.
Bitcoin Magazine is published by BTC Inc., a Nakamoto Inc. company. UTXO Management is a company of Nakamoto Inc. (NASDAQ: NAKA)
