Nobel Physicist Warns Bitcoin Could Be Cracked In Minutes, But The Community Has 5-10 Years To Act
Nobel Prize-winning physicist John Martinis warns Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) could be cracked in minutes by quantum computers but says the community has 5-10 years to upgrade to quantum-resistant encryption.
The Minutes Warning
A recent Google paper endorsed by Martinis shows how a sufficiently advanced quantum computer could derive a Bitcoin private key from its public key in minutes, exploiting the brief window when a transaction’s public key is exposed before confirmation.
The vulnerability centers on a specific exposure window.
When a Bitcoin transaction is broadcast, its public key becomes visible before it is confirmed on-chain.
A powerful quantum computer could use that window to derive the corresponding private key and redirect funds before final settlement.
The Low-Hanging Fruit
Breaking cryptography is one of the easier …
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