Quantum attack on Bitcoin's secp256k1 could take 62 minutes and 29,600 qubits, researchers say
- —Breaking secp256k1 would need roughly 29,600 cat qubits and 62 minutes
- —RSA-2048 was estimated at 22,593 qubits and 3.14 days
- —About 6.26 million BTC with exposed public keys are potentially vulnerable
- —The estimate assumes qubit coherence time of about 100 years
Why it matters: The estimate adds urgency to the debate over migrating Bitcoin to post-quantum cryptography, even though no such quantum machine exists today.
Source: Incrypted