In this video, I discuss whether quantum computers will be able to destroy Bitcoin.
When discussing possible quantum computer attacks on Bitcoin, it’s important to remember that there’s no community in the world that is more focused on cyber security than Bitcoiners.
By contrast, the US banking system and US government are only able to hire mostly second-rate tech employees who enjoy dealing with bureaucracy and taking long lunch breaks.
Quantum computing is thus a much bigger threat to the US government or the US banking system than it is to Bitcoin.
In the event of a quantum attack on Bitcoin, the current signature algorithms would need to be replaced with a quantum-secure signature algorithm– and all BTC at those old addresses would need to be moved to new quantum-secure addresses.
This would be disruptive, but would not ultimately destroy Bitcoin. Once you understand that the essence of Bitcoin is the social layer, the social consensus surrounding it, and Bitcoin’s whole UTXO set, you begin to see that technologically driven attacks on Bitcoin (like a quantum computer attack) are much less dangerous than social attacks.
The best defense against social attacks on Bitcoin is Bitcoin education for everyone.
If Satoshi’s coins ever move, we can be reasonably sure that there is a new powerful quantum computer working in the world.