For years, the conversation around quantum computing and cryptocurrency has been dominated by a single, breathless question: Will a quantum breakthrough kill Bitcoin?
The fear is simple enough. Bitcoin relies on cryptographic assumptions that could, one day, be broken by a sufficiently powerful quantum computer. If that happens, the thinking goes, the entire system collapses. Wallets could be drained. Property rights could be violated. Trust, the foundation of the protocol, evaporates.
As someone who has spent decades working at the intersection of cryptography, maths, and blockchain systems, I understand the anxiety. I’ve had this conversation with researchers like Professor Scott Aronson, one of the foremost experts on quantum computation. And while quantum computing will transform many fields, we need to separate real risks from science-fiction panic.
Quantum computers, if scaled dramatically beyond what exists today, could run Shor’s algorithm — a quantum technique designed to crack the hard mathematical problems that protect modern encryption — to break the elliptic-curve signatures that secure Bitcoin wallets. This is a genuine risk, but a very specific and narrowly defined one.
Here’s the truth: Quantum computing won’t kill Bitcoin. But it will force it to evolve and that evolution has already begun. Quantum computers cannot magically rewrite the entire Bitcoin ledger. They cannot counterfeit coins out of thin air. And they cannot bypass consensus or control the network.
What they could theoretically do is target addresses whose public keys have already been revealed, such as during a transaction. That means the threat is surgical, not systemic.
The biggest misconception in this debate is that Bitcoin is frozen in time. It isn’t. Bitcoin has adopted major upgrades before. And it will evolve again. If and when the quantum threat becomes real rather than theoretical, the network can transition to quantum-resistant signature schemes, which already exist today.
Post-quantum security isn’t an add-on in this ecosystem; it’s baked into its mathematical foundations. In other words, the tools for a quantum-safe future are not theoretical.
Every transformational technology forces legacy systems to improve. Quantum computing will do the same, accelerating the move to more secure constructions, better cryptography, and next-generation scaling architectures. Far from killing Bitcoin, quantum technology could trigger its most important upgrade cycle yet.
The only scenario in which Bitcoin faces existential risk is one where the ecosystem waits too long, assuming quantum computing is always “ten years away.” Cryptographers, researchers, and developers must treat the quantum shift as inevitable and prepare accordingly.
Quantum computing will reshape the world’s technological landscape. It will disrupt encryption standards, national security models, scientific research, drug discovery, and yes–the blockchain ecosystem.
But it won’t kill Bitcoin. What it will do is force us to adopt cryptography that is more robust, more transparent, more elegant, and more future-proof. And in that future, blockchains that embrace post-quantum security, including STARK-based systems, an advanced mathematical approach to blockchain, will not only survive, but thrive.
The future of cryptography is not fear. It’s evolution.
Eli Ben-Sasson, CEO and Co-Founder of StarkWare and Zcash, is a pioneering mathematician best known as the co-inventor of STARKs.
