Grayscale Says Bitcoin’s Quantum Problem is Mostly a Social One

Grayscale backed Google’s quantum warning but says Bitcoin faces bigger social and community challenges than technical ones in preparing for quantum threats.

Grayscale Says Bitcoin’s Quantum Problem is Mostly a Social One

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Written by

Martin Young

,

Staff Writer

Reviewed by

Felix Ng

,

Staff Editor

Bitcoin’s quantum challenges are ‘more social than technical’: Grayscale

Apr 07, 2026

The Bitcoin community has a “history of contentious debates over protocol changes,” said Grayscale head of research Zach Pandl.

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The challenge to solving the quantum threat to Bitcoin could be more social than technical, according to Grayscale’s head of research, especially if the community fails to come to an agreement on certain contentious issues.

Google

released a paper

that drew attention in the crypto industry on March 30, suggesting that a quantum computer could potentially crack the cryptography protecting Bitcoin (

BTC

) using far fewer resources than previously thought.

Grayscale head of research Zach Pandl, however,

suggested

the problem for Bitcoin doesn’t come from its technical solution, as “bitcoin has lower risk than other cryptocurrencies” because it uses a UTXO model and proof-of-work consensus, does not have native smart contracts and certain address types are not quantum vulnerable.

Instead, the challenge would be for the community to reach a decision on the way forward, said Pandl.

The Bitcoin community has been fiercely debating what to do about old dormant coins, particularly the roughly 1.7 million BTC locked in early P2PK addresses, including Satoshi’s estimated 1 million BTC stash, currently worth about $68 billion.

The Bitcoin community has three options

The

Bitcoin community

needs to decide what to do about coins where the private key has been lost or is otherwise inaccessible, wrote Pandl.

They have three main options: burning the coins, deliberately slowing their release by limiting the rate of spending from vulnerable addresses or doing nothing.

“All are conceptually doable, but the challenge is reaching a decision, and the Bitcoin community has a history of contentious debates over protocol changes, including last year’s dispute around image data stored in blocks.”

Pandl was referring to a big fracas that

erupted in 2023

over the use of blockspace for Bitcoin Ordinals, technology that enables inscribing data such as text and images to a satoshi, the smallest unit of Bitcoin.

Two years later, the debate may have quietened down, but the two sides continue to hold opposing views.

Related:

Researchers say quantum computers could, in theory, be ready by 2030

About 1.7 million BTC is vulnerable to the quantum threat. Source: Grayscale

No threat now but time to get started

Pandl cautioned that it was “time to get started” and that blockchains need to adopt post-quantum cryptography, echoing the sentiment from Google.

Both

Solana

and the XRP Ledger are already experimenting with post-quantum cryptography, wrote Pandl. Meanwhile, the Ethereum Foundation released its

post-quantum roadmap

in February.

Pandl concluded that investors “should not fret” for now, but it is time to accelerate efforts to prepare for our post-quantum future.

“In our view, there is no security threat to public blockchains from quantum computers today.”

Magazine:

Nobody knows if quantum secure cryptography will even work

Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently. Read our Editorial Policy

https://cointelegraph.com/editorial-policy

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Bitcoin

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Cryptography

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Grayscale

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Quantum Computing