Quantum Computers Could Crack Bitcoin Far Sooner Than Expected, Caltech Finds
New research from Caltech suggests quantum computers could break Bitcoin encryption with only 10,000 qubits, significantly accelerating the projected threat timeline.Summary
A research team from Caltech and the startup Oratomic has developed a new error-correction architecture that reduces the number of physical qubits required to run Shor’s algorithm to approximately 10,000. This breakthrough challenges previous industry assumptions that quantum threats to Bitcoin were decades away, as the requirement is now within reach of existing experimental hardware. The urgency is compounded by recent findings from Google Quantum AI, which identified 6.7 million BTC in vulnerable addresses that cannot be upgraded to post-quantum security. Experts note that while the technical threat is accelerating, the primary challenge for the Bitcoin community will be achieving governance consensus on how to protect these vulnerable assets.
(Source：BeInCrypto)