Nic Carter: Quantum computing is only "an engineering challenge" away from cracking Bitcoin; 1.7 million Bitcoins face the risk of being attacked

On December 20th, Nic Carter, the father of smart contracts and co-founder of Castle Island Ventures, published a lengthy article stating that research by renowned quantum theorist and scholar Scott Aaronson shows that quantum computing is only an “extremely difficult” engineering challenge to crack Bitcoin, rather than requiring new fundamental physics discoveries. Nic Carter pointed out that, in theory, Bitcoin can undergo a soft fork and adopt “post-quantum” (PQ) signature schemes. There are indeed some quantum-resistant cryptographic signature schemes currently available. However, the main issues are how to determine the specific post-quantum scheme, organize the soft fork, and laboriously migrate tens of millions of addresses with balances. Therefore, the measures needed to prevent Bitcoin from being cracked by quantum computing may take nearly ten years. Additionally, since many vulnerable Bitcoin are stored in abandoned addresses, and their owners cannot be forced to transfer their bitcoins, even if Bitcoin upgrades to post-quantum signatures, it still faces the risk of 1.7 million bitcoins being suddenly stolen by quantum attackers. Bitcoin not only needs to upgrade in an orderly and timely manner, but Bitcoin holders must also collectively agree to seize these 1.7 million bitcoins to eliminate this risk — an unprecedented move in Bitcoin’s history. As a result, Nic Carter urges and calls on the Bitcoin community and developers to take mitigation measures as soon as possible, rather than viewing the threat of quantum computing with indifference and excessive optimism.