Researcher Claims 1 Bitcoin Bounty for Achieving Largest Quantum Attack on Underlying Technology

The threat of quantum attacks on bitcoin has become more tangible as an independent researcher, Giancarlo Lelli, has been awarded a 1 bitcoin bounty for breaking a 15-bit elliptic curve key on publicly accessible quantum hardware. This achievement is considered the largest public demonstration of its kind and has significant implications for the security of bitcoin and other major blockchains. Elliptic curve cryptography, which enables a crypto wallet to prove ownership of funds without revealing its private key, is the foundation of bitcoin's security. However, quantum computers running Shor's algorithm pose a challenge to this security by potentially deriving the private key from its public counterpart. While Lelli's achievement does not mean that bitcoin is on the verge of being compromised, as it uses 256-bit elliptic curve security, it does demonstrate the rapid progress being made in quantum attacks. The previous public break was a 6-bit demonstration, and Lelli's result represents a 512-fold increase in just seven months. Theoretical estimates suggest that the resources required for a full 256-bit attack are decreasing, with a recent Google Research paper estimating the cost to be below 500,000 physical qubits. This has significant implications for wallets with public keys already visible on-chain, with approximately 6.9 million bitcoin at risk. To address this concern, bitcoin developers have proposed migration paths, including the introduction of quantum-safe address types, while other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Tron, StarkWare, and Ripple have also published post-quantum transition plans.