Watch out Bitcoin devs. Google says post-quantum migration needs to happen by 2029.
Google set a 2029 deadline for migrating its services to post-quantum cryptography, highlighting the urgent need for Bitcoin to address its quantum-vulnerable signatures.Summary
Google has mandated a 2029 deadline for migrating all its authentication services to post-quantum cryptography (PQC), citing rapid progress in quantum hardware and error correction. This deadline signals that the threat from quantum computers, which can use Shor's algorithm to break current encryption like Bitcoin's ECDSA, is closer than previously thought.
While Bitcoin uses ECDSA for signatures, which is vulnerable, the decentralized governance model makes a coordinated migration difficult, contrasting sharply with Ethereum, which has been working on a PQC roadmap for eight years and has launched a dedicated hub for its efforts.
Prominent Bitcoin advocate Nic Carter criticized Bitcoin's lack of a coherent strategy as "worst in class" compared to Ethereum's "best in class" approach. Although some argue the immediate threat is overstated for most Bitcoin, the consensus among experts like Google and Ethereum is that migration is necessary before a cryptographically relevant quantum computer arrives, leaving Bitcoin with a significant coordination challenge.
(Source：CoinDesk)