Overview
- At Web Summit, Alice & Bob CEO Théau Peronnin, whose firm partners with Nvidia, said quantum machines could threaten Bitcoin shortly after 2030 and urged a fork by 2030.
- Blockstream CEO Adam Back countered that Bitcoin is probably not vulnerable for 20 to 40 years and said soft‑fork upgrades can enable a gradual transition.
- NIST has finalized post‑quantum standards, including ML‑DSA and SLH‑DSA, giving Bitcoin concrete signature options despite larger sizes and implementation‑hardening needs.
- No cryptographically relevant quantum computer exists today, with analyses indicating hundreds of millions of physical qubits could be required to break secp256k1 within transaction windows.
- Developers have outlined migration paths such as BIP‑360, hybrid signature schemes, and reserved block space for rescue moves, with priority on coins whose public keys are already exposed.