PANews reported on December 17 that, according to DL News, Google released its new quantum computing chip Willow last week, which improves performance by 56% compared to previous chips, making the threat of quantum computers to the cryptocurrency industry more urgent. Scientists predict that if this pace of advancement continues, quantum computers may soon allow hackers to directly steal Bitcoin from holders' wallets. Pierre-Luc Dallaire-Demers, a resident scientist at the University of Calgary, stated, 'We are about five years away from commercial quantum computers being able to break the elliptic curve keys that protect Bitcoin wallets.' This quantum physicist is not the only one making this prediction; several other researchers have also estimated that quantum computers will pose a threat to Bitcoin within 5 to 10 years.
Dallaire-Demers founded a company that provides quantum-resistant encryption infrastructure, referring to Bitcoin's ECDSA 256 encryption technology, which protects addresses and signs transactions using public-private key pairs. He stated, 'Breaking these keys is currently one of the easiest applications for large quantum computers to achieve.' ECDSA 256 is vulnerable to Shor's algorithm, which can quickly convert large numbers into prime factors and potentially crack the private keys behind encrypted wallets. However, defending against Shor's algorithm would require a fundamental change to Bitcoin's encryption technology.
