Is It Time for Bitcoin Holders to Panic About ‘Quantum Supremacy’?
(Decrypt) Does Google’s achievement of “quantum supremacy” endanger digital currencies?
Probably not. Sources at Google explaied that NASA took down the paper because it might have been published without the proper scientific peer review. A scientific publication needs to be evaluated and studied by a panel of experts before its ready for publication. So, it might not even actually be ready.
Let’s assume it is. What you need to know about Bitcoin to understand the potential threat of quantum computing is that its architecture relies on two algorithms: ECDSA for digital signatures and SHA-256 as a hash function. A quantum computer could use Shor’s algorithm to get your private from your public key.
Don’t panic just yet. The most optimistic scientific estimates say that even if this were possible, it won’t happen during this decade (enough time to fork Bitcoin and make it quantum proof).