Coinbase Global Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:COIN) advisory board on quantum computing released its first paper on Tuesday, detailing which parts of cryptocurrency security a future quantum machine could threaten and why the industry should begin upgrades now.
Coinbase Advocates Early Quantum Preparedness
The board, consisting of leading researchers from Stanford, UT Austin and the Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) Foundation, expressed “high confidence” that a quantum computer capable of breaking cryptography that secures digital assets will be built eventually, even if that capability doesn’t exist yet.
“The board’s view is straightforward: the time to start preparing is now, not when it’s urgent,” the Coinbase blog read.
Vulnerable Spots
The paper draws a line between network-level components and user-level key exposure, saying the biggest weak spot is the digital signatures used to prove ownership.
It added that Bitcoin’s mining process, hashing, and the immutability of prior blocks are not “meaningfully threatened” by quantum attacks.
For Bitcoin, the board estimated about 6.9 million BTC …