Google's Quantum AI Team Raises Concerns Over Bitcoin and Ethereum's Blockchain Security

A new study by Google's Quantum AI team has shed light on the potential vulnerability of Bitcoin and Ethereum's blockchain to quantum computers. According to the research, a powerful quantum computer could break their cryptography using fewer than 500,000 physical qubits, which is a significant decrease from previous estimates.

The researchers modelled a scenario where a hacker could steal coins mid-transaction in about 9 minutes by quickly using the briefly revealed public key to calculate the private key. This would give them a 41% chance of beating Bitcoin's 10-minute block time.

Taproot, Bitcoin's 2021 upgrade, has been found to expose public keys on-chain by default, widening the pool of quantum-exposed coins to about 6.9 million BTC. This has raised concerns among traders and developers who are now calling for a post-quantum migration.