Businesses/orgs that have smart leaders are already implementing (or have already completed implementing) post-quantum encryption algs/methods into their systems to protect them for when quantum computers and quantum programming mature, making their existing encryption defeatable. For most systems it’s just a matter of a software update and re-encrypting any data.
This is a problem for public proof-of-work systems that cannot change their encryption, eg: all crypto. Bitcoin cannot change how their coins are encrypted without redesigning and completely rebuilding their public blockchain - it would require concensus from all major bitcoin users and businesses (coin exchanges etc), and could potentially leave any prior-minted bitcoin vulnerable anyway. It will not happen anytime soon - and when it does happen, it may be too late.
Hence, its actually pretty high on the list of quantum targets, and will likely be attacked as soon as it’s available. Some people might be able to steal a bunch of Bitcoin and exchange it for other new (secure) coins or for cash, and get out before the Bitcoin public realize its been cracked. At which time the Bitcoin price will crash hard and may not recover (depending on what action they take to resolve the issue), so the cautious are getting out asap.
But agreed its easy for centralized businesses/entities to eventually migrate their stuff into quantum secure systems. Theirs like a 100B for whoever can crack satoshi’s bitcoin keys
Crypto seems like alot lower on the list of problems that will happen if encryption no longer works
Businesses/orgs that have smart leaders are already implementing (or have already completed implementing) post-quantum encryption algs/methods into their systems to protect them for when quantum computers and quantum programming mature, making their existing encryption defeatable. For most systems it’s just a matter of a software update and re-encrypting any data.
Eg: https://arstechnica.com/security/2025/10/why-signals-post-quantum-makeover-is-an-amazing-engineering-achievement/
This is a problem for public proof-of-work systems that cannot change their encryption, eg: all crypto. Bitcoin cannot change how their coins are encrypted without redesigning and completely rebuilding their public blockchain - it would require concensus from all major bitcoin users and businesses (coin exchanges etc), and could potentially leave any prior-minted bitcoin vulnerable anyway. It will not happen anytime soon - and when it does happen, it may be too late.
Hence, its actually pretty high on the list of quantum targets, and will likely be attacked as soon as it’s available. Some people might be able to steal a bunch of Bitcoin and exchange it for other new (secure) coins or for cash, and get out before the Bitcoin public realize its been cracked. At which time the Bitcoin price will crash hard and may not recover (depending on what action they take to resolve the issue), so the cautious are getting out asap.
So very few
But agreed its easy for centralized businesses/entities to eventually migrate their stuff into quantum secure systems. Theirs like a 100B for whoever can crack satoshi’s bitcoin keys
Well not all encryption, mostly just public key based algorithms. AES-256 should be good for a while yet even in a post quantum computing world.
forgot to specify asymmetric encryption good point