Bitcoin could fall victim to quantum computers sooner than expected. Now crypto investors are turning to these alternative coins

Bitcoin has been the king of cryptocurrencies since its inception. And despite its high volatility, the token generally benefits from faith among investors that its underlying encryption is sound—which in turn protects digital coins from being stolen from wallets.

But a recent report from Google suggests that Bitcoin’s relative security could soon be compromised by quantum computers, prompting investors to shift their attention to “quantum-resistant” tokens.

Here’s what you need to know.

What’s happened?

Yesterday, Google published a blog post warning that Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies may be vulnerable to quantum computers sooner than previously expected.

Specifically, Google announced that quantum computers with just 500,000 qubits of processing power could crack Bitcoin’s elliptic-curve cryptography within minutes.

And this could happen before the decade is out.

Google’s blog post may have sent shivers down the spines of many crypto investors. While experts have long known that quantum computers will one day pose a threat to the legacy pre-quantum encryption systems that most of our data relies on today, that threat was seen as decades away.

But now, thanks to advances in quantum computing, the timeline has been accelerated, and experts, including Google, are now warning that industries should enhance their quantum computing defenses by 2029 at the latest.

The threat quantum computers pose to Bitcoin

To be clear, quantum computers don’t just pose a threat to Bitcoin. They pose a threat to any data currently protected and secured by so-called classical encryption.

Classical encryption is the type used to protect most of your data today.

Classical encryption is called “classical” because it is secure against the threats posed by today’s classical computer systems—computers that operate on the principles of classical physics, where every data point is a bit (either a 1 or a 0). It would take today’s supercomputers millions of years to break our current classical encryption algorithms. 

But a quantum computer operates using the principles of quantum physics. Instead of bits, quantum computers use qubits, where every point of data can be a 1 and a 0 at the same time, making their computations exponentially faster. Due to this, a quantum computer with enough qubits could break today’s classical encryption within minutes.

It is now feared that quantum computers with sufficient qubits could exist sooner than expected, and that this poses a threat to Bitcoin’s security, which relies on classical elliptic-curve encryption.

If quantum computers become powerful enough to break that encryption, bad actors could simply transfer Bitcoin from a victim’s wallet to theirs.

Investor interest in quantum-resistant tokens grows

Technology and security experts have, of course, known about the threat quantum computers pose to our classical encryption for years. That’s why cryptography experts have long been working on a new type of encryption called post-quantum encryption (PQC). 

Post-quantum encryption employs more advanced mathematics and new algorithms that, in theory, will make it significantly more difficult for quantum computers to crack.

Already, companies such as Signal and Apple have added PQC protections to their messaging apps. And in the crypto space, there are entire tokens designed to address the potential threat posed by quantum computers.

These types of cryptocurrencies are known as “quantum-resistant tokens” and already incorporate PQC into their encryption protections. And since Google published its warning yesterday, interest in some of these tokens has been climbing.

As CoinDesk points out, several quantum-resistant tokens have seen price spikes in the past 24 hours. As of the time of this writing, according to CoinGecko data, those quantum-resistant tokens seeing surging prices include:

• Abelian (ABEL): up 29.5%
• Cellframe (CEL): up 76.9%
• Quantum Resistant Ledger (QRL): up 11%

However, not all quantum-resistant tokens are surging. For example, QANplatform (QANX) is currently down about 2.2%.

Yet the price rises in many quantum-resistant tokens in the 24 hours after Google published its report suggest that some crypto investors are indeed worried about the threat quantum computers pose to cryptocurrencies—even if those threats are still years away. 

That’s something investors in Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies will likely have to increasingly contend with as the age of quantum computers marches ever nearer.

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