Nobel laureate: Quantum computing can crack Bitcoin private keys within minutes

CoinJie.com news: According to CoinDesk, John M. Martinis, the former head of Google quantum hardware and the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physics winner, warned that Bitcoin could become among the first real-world targets of quantum computing attacks. Martinis noted that breaking cryptography is an early application direction that is relatively easier to implement for quantum computers. According to Google’s latest research, when Bitcoin transactions are broadcast across the entire network but on-chain confirmation has not yet been completed, its public key goes through a brief exposure window. In theory, quantum devices with sufficient computing power could take advantage of that window period to directly reverse-engineer the private key from the public key and transfer the underlying funds within minutes. Although engineering barriers such as scaling up quantum devices and error correction still require 5 to 10 more years to overcome, Martinis emphasized that, compared with traditional financial systems, Bitcoin’s decentralized architecture makes upgrades to the underlying protocol slower and highly controversial. Core developers and the cryptography community must immediately put forward post-quantum cryptography transition plans and address this systemic underlying risk as early as possible.