#Gate广场四月发帖挑战 Google researchers warned on Tuesday that future quantum computers may be able to crack some of the encryption technologies currently protecting Bitcoin and other digital assets with fewer resources than previously thought, making discussions about how the industry should prepare even more urgent.

The researchers did not specify whether such machines already exist, but they indicated that recent studies suggest the computational power needed to carry out such attacks could be lower than many early estimates.

In a recent blog post published by Google Research, the researchers stated that future quantum computers might crack elliptic curve cryptography — a widely adopted public key encryption technology in the market today.

Their latest estimates show that the quantum hardware scale required to break the so-called ECDLP-256(, a mathematical problem used to secure cryptocurrency wallets and transaction security), could be reduced by about 20 times.

This does not mean that Bitcoin or Ethereum will suddenly face security risks. However, in a white paper released on Monday, Google researchers pointed out that the most straightforward defense is to switch to post-quantum cryptography(PQC) — a new security mechanism designed to resist powerful machine attacks. They also urged the crypto industry to reduce avoidable risks during this period.

“We urge all cryptocurrency communities with security vulnerabilities to immediately migrate to PQC,” they said.

“Escape” timeline: 2029!

Google views this white paper as a warning aimed at giving the industry time to take action — rather than signaling an imminent collapse. Last week, the tech giant announced a timetable to fully migrate its own security systems to PQC by 2029.

Google researchers stated that the remaining time before such quantum computers emerge still seems longer than the time needed to migrate public blockchains to PQC. However, the tolerance window is shrinking. Given the pace of technological progress, developers, exchanges, and wallet providers should accelerate their efforts to strengthen their systems before the threat becomes a reality.

Google researchers also pointed out some early work already underway, including PQC projects like QRL and Abelian, work related to Algorand, and experiments on Solana and XRP Ledger. “These pioneering projects demonstrate that transitioning to PQC is feasible,” they wrote.

For years, concerns about quantum computing posing a real threat to cryptocurrencies have been rampant.

In January this year, Coinbase Global Inc. established an independent advisory committee to study the potential impact of quantum computing on blockchain. In the same month, J.P. Morgan’s global equity strategist Christopher Waller removed 10% of Bitcoin from his model investment portfolio, citing concerns that the advent of quantum computing could weaken the value of the cryptocurrency.

However, on Tuesday, the crypto market seemed unfazed by the widespread circulation of Google’s report, with Bitcoin rising as much as 2.6% to around $68,300.

CoinShares investment strategist Matthew Kimmell said the warning in the study signals the need for “responsible urgent action.”

“The timeline is shortening and becoming more credible,” he said. “The role of this research is to shorten the window for the industry to push forward with research and reach an action plan. The good news is that this problem can still be solved.”