The Quantum Threat to Bitcoin: How a 9-Minute Window Can Compromise Your Cryptocurrency

A quantum computer can potentially steal your bitcoin in a matter of minutes, but to understand how, it's essential to grasp the basics of bitcoin's encryption and the physics of quantum computing. Bitcoin uses elliptic curve cryptography, which relies on a one-way function to ensure the security of transactions. However, a quantum algorithm known as Shor's algorithm can break this encryption, and Google's recent paper has reduced the estimated number of qubits required to do so. The paper introduces a practical attack scenario, where a quantum computer can precompute parts of the algorithm and then finish the calculation in approximately nine minutes once a target public key appears. This poses a significant threat to bitcoin's security, particularly for the 6.9 million coins that have already had their public keys exposed on the blockchain.