In an interview with Bloomberg yesterday, Blockstream co-founder and cryptologist Adam Back dismissed the idea that a quantum threat to Bitcoin is imminent.
Their argument is based on three points. One is that the current state of quantum hardware is “too basic” to represent any real risk. Preparatory work is already underway. And the ecosystem has enough time to transition in an orderly manner.
He explained that the most complex operation that currently available quantum computers can perform is factoring the number 21 into 7×3, “something that kids can practice on.” Additionally, this hardware generally lacks error correction capabilities, he added. Now it’s “much slower than a calculator.”
Furthermore, in their estimation, the ecosystem That’s about 10 years ago To prepare for the transition of keys to a post-quantum format.
This view of the Blockstream co-founder was already previously reported by CriptoNoticias, as Back claimed in December 2024 that the distance to the arrival of “Q-day” is “10 to 20 years”.
Buck’s other most important discussion in the interview is less technical and more about communication. “Negative news sells,” he said, “which is why advances in quantum hardware and algorithm research get a lot of attention when they’re told from a Bitcoin perspective. Meanwhile, a 20-person team is publishing a paper.” paperdeploying things and getting them into production doesn’t get as much attention.
For Buck, this imbalance creates distorted perceptions. “There is a discrepancy between the perception and the reality of the work being done. Things are moving in the right direction,” he said.
This observation is in line with what developer Greg Maxwell pointed out a few days ago on a hacker news forum, claiming that part of Bitcoin’s quantum panic is that: Deliberately egged on by actors with commercial interestsfacts reported by CriptoNoticias.
Work already in progress and vision back
Buck pointed out that the perception of inaction in the Bitcoin ecosystem does not reflect reality. “We have a 20-person research team at Blockstream that has been working on this research since this year and the year before last,” he said in an interview.
And this isn’t the first time Buck has made such a statement. As reported by CriptoNoticias on April 2, the cryptologist had already said as much in a response to investor Nick Carter, who claimed that Bitcoin developers were “doing nothing” to secure the network.
In an April 7 interview, Buck also mentioned: Blockstream has presented several post-quantum signature proposals It is optimized for Bitcoin, and some of it has already been implemented on Liquid Network, a Bitcoin sidechain operated by the company. These developments correspond to two of Blockstream’s proprietary post-quantum signature schemes: SHRIMPS and SHRINCS.
The Blockstream co-founder also noted that the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) post-quantum standard was only officially established in November 2024, which could partly explain why the development of Bitcoin’s particular solution is relatively recent.
Companies and scientists call for quantum protection for digital systems
Buck’s statement came a few days later. paper Published by Google Quantum AI and states: decreased up to 20 times Required quantum resources Compromising the encryption that protects the signatures of Bitcoin transactions.
Mr. Buck’s explanations and estimates directly conflict with the narrative of urgency promoted by other studies, including reports such as the Google report mentioned, and a study by scientists at Caltech and Oratomic published on March 30, the same day as the Google Quantum AI report.
According to the researchers, this latest report: The hardware required to run Shor’s algorithm has been significantly reduceda quantum method that can break the encryption that protects Bitcoin signatures.
A milestone in Caltech and Oratomic’s research was that advances in new types of error-correcting codes, more efficient logic operations, and optimized circuit designs have theoretically reduced the amount of physical hardware needed to implement Scholl’s algorithm at cryptographically relevant scales by two orders of magnitude (or approximately 100 times).
Meanwhile, Cloudflare announced on April 7th. Radical restructuring of security roadmapset a new goal for 2029 to achieve comprehensive post-quantization protection, consistent with another report from Google.
Thus, the post-quantum debate in Bitcoin currently appears to lead to two defined narratives. One is the story of those who point out that deadlines are compressing and the governance of the protocol is not ready, and the other is the story of those who argue that the technical work is progressing in a rational way and that the panic is disconnected from the actual state of the hardware.
(Tag Translation) Bitcoin (BTC)
