BroadChain News, April 25, 18:23, according to CoinDesk, quantum computers cannot break Bitcoin's mining mechanism or blockchain ledger, but they may use Shor's algorithm to crack the elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) protecting wallet ownership. Currently, approximately 6.9 million BTC (about one-third of the total supply) face potential risk because their public keys are already visible on the chain, including about 1 million early Bitcoins held by Satoshi Nakamoto; transactions generated after Ethereum's Taproot upgrade in 2021 are also exposed due to the public disclosure of public keys.
Since 2018, Ethereum has maintained an official post-quantum migration plan, with four full-time teams and over ten independent development groups, and operates a dedicated progress tracking website pq.ethereum.org. In contrast, Bitcoin lacks a unified quantum-resistant roadmap: existing proposals such as BIP-360 and BitMEX Research's detection framework have not received widespread support from core developers. Bitcoin advocate Nic Carter described Bitcoin's quantum response as "the worst," and Blockstream CEO Adam Back acknowledged that current quantum systems are still limited to laboratory environments but agreed that optional upgrade mechanisms should be proactively deployed.
Analysts point out that Bitcoin's decentralized governance culture makes coordinating large-scale security upgrades extremely difficult, and addressing historical issues (such as how to handle Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings) is particularly challenging. Related Google papers warn that once a quantum attack becomes a reality, the effective response window may have already closed.