Coinbase Research Director: About one-third of Bitcoin may face the risk of quantum attacks

Coinbase's Global Investment Research Director David Duong warned that as quantum computing technology accelerates, the long-term security of Bitcoin is entering "uncharted waters." He pointed out that the risks posed by quantum computing are significantly underestimated in the current approximately $3.3 trillion cryptocurrency market.

Duong stated that about one-third of the Bitcoin supply is at structural risk in the future due to its wallet public keys being publicly exposed, which may face brute-force attacks on private keys by quantum computing. Although quantum computing is still in its early stages, the associated threats have evolved from theoretical issues to real dangers. He emphasized that the real core risk lies in the security of digital signatures, rather than the potential impact of quantum computing on mining efficiency. Once quantum computers have sufficient computing power, attackers could derive private keys from public keys, directly stealing Bitcoin assets. Previously, institutions, including BlackRock, have explicitly listed quantum computing as a risk factor in Bitcoin ETF filings, and some researchers even predict that quantum computing could threaten the Bitcoin encryption system within 4 to 5 years.