Bitcoin’s Security Model May Shift As Quantum Computing Moves Forward: Analyst

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’s 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 — two separate threats that would touch both user funds and Bitcoin’s economic model. Quantum Risk Moves Beyond Keys Duong said about one-third of the Bitcoin 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. Experts Say...

https://bitcoinist.com/bitcoins-security-model-may-shift-as-quantum-computing-moves-forward-analyst/