Two peer-reviewed papers just dropped saying quantum computers could break Bitcoin's encryption way sooner than anyone thought—Google estimates fewer than 500,000 qubits in about 9 minutes, Caltech says maybe 10,000 qubits in 10 days.
Sounds terrifying until you remember today's quantum computers have maybe thousands of qubits, not hundreds of thousands.
The real story: roughly 6.9 million Bitcoin (about a third of all BTC) sits in wallets that would theoretically be vulnerable, and the industry is actually moving. Bitcoin developers are testing quantum-resistant upgrades like BIP-360, and Coinbase brought in cryptographers to assess the risk. So yes, this matters long-term. But skeptical analysts point out the practical threat is probably years away, and the attack assumes you can steal from an old wallet without the owner noticing—which isn't exactly subtle. The actual question nobody can answer: how fast does quantum hardware actually scale? Here's the full breakdown: https://bullorbs.com/article/take-google-just-said-quantum-computers-could-crack-bit-2026-04-02
Google says quantum computers could crack Bitcoin in 9 minutes. Here's what actually matters.
byu/Soft_Active_8468 inCryptoMarkets
Posted by Soft_Active_8468
2 Comments
But wouldn’t this also crack every encryption out there and make nothing on the Internet secure anymore if they didn’t adopt new encryption before then? Why do people single out Crypto when talking about quantum?
Yes , all encryption are at risk and most of them come with the cost of your privacy and personal info , I heard people are already harvesting internet traffic that can be used for decryption once quantum is there … crypto usually is there fav kid as it is more complex to break so it’s mostly used as benchmark how quick it can be broken .