Coinbase has stated that quantum computing does not pose an immediate threat to Bitcoin, but the industry needs to prepare for the future migration. The company has partnered with several organizations to form the "Bitcoin Security Alliance" and announced its technology roadmap for the post-quantum era.
A security alliance was established in conjunction with multiple organizations.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong stated on the X platform that this alliance was initiated by Coinbase and supported by institutions such as BlackRock, Fidelity Digital Assets, Block, Blockstream, and Strategy. The goal is to collaborate on the long-term security of Bitcoin and prepare for the potential emergence of high-performance quantum computers in the future.
Coinbase stated that post-quantum risks are not imminent, but the real challenge lies not just in algorithm replacement, but in completing a large-scale, secure migration within a decentralized network. The Bitcoin network involves millions of users, and any upgrade requires extensive coordination.
Coinbase Announces Internal Technology Roadmap
The company disclosed that Coinbase has released a post-quantum roadmap and is developing a quantum-resistant version of its proprietary key management system, PQ-CoreKMS. The company believes that fault-tolerant quantum computers are highly likely to eventually emerge, and therefore is now preparing for a more realistic future.
As planned, Coinbase will hold working meetings with Bitcoin Core developers, cryptographers, and researchers starting in August to discuss migration plans. The company has also pledged to invest engineering resources and funding to support related research and implementation preparations.
The current threat is still far off, but the window of opportunity for preparation has opened.
The article mentions that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has recently completed the selection and standardization of its first batch of post-quantum cryptography algorithms. Governments and technology companies have also begun to push for the transition of critical infrastructure to the new standards.
Regarding Bitcoin, quantum computers are still significantly far from breaking its elliptic curve cryptography. It is widely believed in the industry that a truly capable system would require millions of high-quality physical qubits, coupled with stable error correction capabilities, which is still far beyond current capabilities.
However, there is no clear timeline within the industry regarding when such a system will emerge. Developers have proposed several directions for potential Bitcoin migration solutions, including introducing quantum-resistant signature schemes, encouraging users to transfer funds to upgraded addresses, and advancing protocol-level adjustments through future Bitcoin improvement proposals.
This also means that the focus of the relevant work is not on dealing with short-term attacks for the time being, but on establishing a collaborative mechanism as soon as possible to reduce the technical and governance difficulties during future centralized migrations.
Additional information:In addition to Coinbase, the alliance members mentioned in the article include major industry players such as BlackRock, Fidelity Digital Assets, Block, Blockstream, and Strategy.
