PANews reported on January 6th, citing DL News, that David Duong, Global Head of Investment Research at Coinbase, warned that Bitcoin's long-term security is heading into uncharted territory, with quantum computing advancing faster than the cryptocurrency industry anticipated. Duong believes that while a direct attack on Bitcoin is not yet imminent, the quantum threat has evolved from a theoretical hypothesis into a real structural risk—wallets holding approximately one-third of the Bitcoin supply use publicly visible encrypted output formats, making them highly vulnerable to brute-force attacks.
Duong stated that quantum computers pose two risks. One is economic: if quantum machines become powerful enough, they could mine Bitcoin blocks with efficiency far exceeding current levels, potentially distorting the network's incentive mechanisms. The second risk is more immediate: quantum computers could derive private keys from exposed public keys, allowing attackers to steal funds from vulnerable addresses. Duong wrote, "Given current scalability limitations, quantum mining remains a lower priority concern; signature security is the core issue." Quantum computing is still in its early stages. Researchers have long disagreed on whether and when quantum computers would threaten Bitcoin's cryptography.
