#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 that such machines already exist, but they said that the latest research suggests the computing power needed to carry out such attacks may be lower than many early estimates.

In a recent blog post published by Google Research, the researchers said that future quantum computers could break elliptic curve cryptography—an asymmetric public key encryption technology that is widely adopted in the market today.

Their latest estimates show that the scale of quantum hardware required to solve the so-called ECDLP-256(, a mathematical problem used to protect 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. But in a white paper released on Monday, Google researchers pointed out that the clearest defense is to move to post-quantum cryptography)PQC(— a new security mechanism designed to withstand attacks from powerful machines. They also urged the crypto industry to reduce avoidable risks during this period.

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

“Escape” timeline: 2029!

Google views the white paper as a warning meant to give the industry time to take action—rather than to foretell an impending collapse. Last week, the tech giant released a timetable, planning to fully migrate its own security systems to PQC by 2029.

Google researchers said that although the time left before such quantum computers come into being seems longer than the time needed to migrate public blockchains to PQC, the margin for fault is shrinking. Given the speed of technological progress, developers, exchanges, and wallet providers should move faster to strengthen their systems before the threat becomes real.

Google researchers also noted some early work already underway, including PQC projects such as QRL and Abelian, related efforts by Algorand, and experiments on Solana and XRP Ledger. “These pioneering projects show that the transition to PQC is practically feasible,” they wrote.

For years, concerns that quantum computing poses a real threat to cryptocurrencies have been widespread.

In January this year, Coinbase Global Inc. set up an independent advisory committee to study the potential impact of quantum computing on blockchains. That same month, Jefferies Global Equity Strategy Head Christopher Wood removed 10% of the Bitcoin allocation from his model portfolio, citing concerns that the emergence of quantum computing could weaken the value of the cryptocurrency.

However, on Tuesday, the crypto world appeared largely unfazed by the widely circulated news about Google’s report above; Bitcoin’s gains at one point reached 2.6%, to around $68,300.

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

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