A recent study from the University of Kent warns that Google’s Willow chip, a leading quantum computing advancement, poses a significant threat to Bitcoin’s encryption methods. If left unaddressed, this threat could undo Bitcoin’s foundational encryption, putting its record-high value over $106,000 at risk.
According to Carlos Perez-Delgado, one of the study’s authors and senior lecturer at the University of Kent, quantum computing can perform exponentially more operations than classical computers, making it vulnerable to attacks. The study suggests that Bitcoin would need to undergo a costly update process to protect itself from this threat, which could take nearly 10 months.
Perez-Delgado emphasizes that the cost of such an update is substantial, with estimated downtime costs ranging from $500,000 for just one hour to over $912 million for a 76-day period. The study highlights the need for Bitcoin and other systems like it to adopt “post-quantum” cryptography to protect against emerging quantum technologies.
While Perez-Delgado does not see this as an immediate threat, experts warn that decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will face significant challenges in updating their encryption methods. Options such as de-throttling block times or speeding up transaction processing may be explored, but these solutions come with trade-offs and potential side effects.
Source: https://fortune.com/2024/12/17/bitcoin-downtime-update-quantum-computing-attack-study