Google's Quantum Breakthrough Sparks Concerns Over Crypto Security

Google's recent research paper on quantum computing has raised concerns about the security of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. According to the paper, cracking the 256-bit elliptic curve cryptography securing these wallets may require fewer than 500,000 physical qubits.

This is a significant reduction from earlier projections, which estimated the need for several million qubits. However, this breakthrough also means that hackers could potentially break Bitcoin private keys in roughly nine minutes after a transaction reveals the public key, giving an attacker about a 41% chance of exploiting the gap before the network's typical 10-minute confirmation time.

Around 6.9 million Bitcoin – roughly one-third of the total supply – are held in wallets where public keys have already been exposed. This includes holdings attributed to the elusive Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto, as well as additional funds tied to address reuse.