{"id":66781,"date":"2026-01-07T21:01:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=66781"},"modified":"2026-01-07T21:01:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T21:01:32","slug":"bitcoins-security-model-may-shift-as-quantum-computing-moves-forward-analyst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/?p=66781","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin\u2019s Security Model May Shift As Quantum Computing Moves Forward: Analyst"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Coinbase research lead has warned that advances in quantum computing could pose wider risks to Bitcoin than simple wallet theft.<\/p>\n

According to David Duong<\/a>, the company\u2019s global head of investment research, future quantum machines might be able to break the cryptographic signatures that secure transactions and could also give quantum-powered miners a big speed edge \u2014 two separate threats that would touch both user funds and Bitcoin\u2019s economic model.<\/p>\n

Quantum Risk Moves Beyond Keys<\/h2>\n

Duong said about one-third of the Bitcoin<\/a> supply may be structurally exposed because their public keys are already visible on the blockchain. That figure is close to 33%, or about 6.51 million BTC, held in address types where public keys are revealed and could, in theory, be derived into private keys by a powerful enough quantum computer. Reports have highlighted that this exposure comes mostly from address reuse and older wallet formats.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Experts Say Two Main Technical Threats Exist<\/h2>\n

One threat is to signatures. Quantum algorithms such as Shor\u2019s could, at scale, recover private keys from public keys, letting attackers sign transactions and drain funds.<\/p>\n

The second is a possible mining problem: a sufficiently fast quantum miner might find proofs of work much faster than classic rigs, upsetting incentives and block production. Duong and others stress the signature risk is nearer-term in theory, because it only requires cracking signatures tied to revealed public keys.<\/p>\n

What The Industry Is Doing<\/p>\n

Based on reports<\/a>, the conversation has already reached fund managers and standards bodies. Some institutional filings have started to flag quantum risk, and NIST and other bodies are pushing work on post-quantum cryptography for broader systems.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Engineers in the crypto space are looking at migration paths that would swap in quantum-resistant schemes, though any such change to Bitcoin would be complex and would require wide agreement.<\/p>\n

A Long-Term Problem, Not An Immediate One<\/p>\n

Duong and other commentators note that today\u2019s quantum machines<\/a> are far too small and noisy to crack Bitcoin\u2019s cryptography. The warnings are about a possible future point often called \u201cQ-day,\u201d when a machine large and stable enough could run Shor\u2019s and related algorithms at scale. Timelines vary widely among experts; some expect decades, others say the gap is shrinking faster than many predicted.<\/p>\n

According to industry sources, coins that remain in addresses that have already allowed vulnerability of public keys are the most exposed if a well-architectured quantum machine is deployed. That makes best practices \u2014 like avoiding address reuse and moving old balances to fresh, quantum-resistant addresses once those are available \u2014 sensible steps. But there is no simple, one-click fix for the whole ecosystem, experts say.<\/p>\n

Featured image from Peter Hansen\/Getty Images, chart from TradingView<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Coinbase research lead has warned that advances in quantum computing could pose wider risks to Bitcoin than simple wallet theft. According to David Duong, the company\u2019s global head of investment research, future quantum machines might be able to break the cryptographic signatures that secure transactions and could also give quantum-powered miners a big speed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3,4,5],"class_list":["post-66781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-crypto","tag-doge","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dogewisperer.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}