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Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, is widely known for his strong interest in Bitcoin (BTC) and often shares his opinions whenever the topic arises.
So when Google issued a new warning about the potential threat quantum computing poses to Bitcoin, he quickly responded with his thoughts, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Google warns of quantum threats to Bitcoin
Google recently issued two warnings in a span of a few days.
First, quantum computers will be able to crack cryptography encrypting cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) by 2029. In fact, hackers might try stealing encrypted financial details right now and wait until 2029 for quantum computers to become powerful enough to decrypt those details.
Google recommended transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) to address the threat.
Second, a quantum system could crack a real-time Bitcoin transaction in about nine minutes. Here is how it could happen.
When a Bitcoin transaction is executed, the public key is revealed for a brief period. A quantum computer powerful enough can use the public key to find out the private key and steal the crypto assets.
It takes approximately 10 minutes for a Bitcoin transaction to confirm; the probability of success is only slightly less than 41%, the paper estimated.
Elon Musk on ‘plus side’ of quantum threat
Following the discussion surrounding Google’s quantum warnings, Elon Musk said there is a “plus side” to it.
“On the plus side, if you forgot the password to your wallet, it will be accessible in the future,” he shared with his over 237 million followers on X.
What it implies is that quantum computing could become so powerful in the future that it could even retrieve forgotten passwords and make crypto wallets more vulnerable to quantum attacks.
Bitcoin was trading at $66,644.42 at press time, down 24% this year.