Quantum Computer Era is Coming…When Will Bitcoin Security Be at Risk?

▲ Bitcoin (BTC), Quantum Computer/AI Generated Image ©

Fears spread that Bitcoin's encryption had been breached, but it was confirmed to be a limited experimental result far from a 'complete hack'.

According to crypto-specialized media Bitcoinist on April 28 (local time), researcher Giancarlo Lelli successfully decrypted a portion of the Elliptic Curve Cryptography, which forms the basis of Bitcoin (BTC) security, using a quantum computer. He used publicly available quantum hardware and a variant of Shor's algorithm to crack a 15-bit encryption key and received a 1 BTC prize.

This achievement significantly surpasses previous records. The complexity increased by 512 times compared to the previous case in September 2025, which only decrypted 6 bits. The speed of technological advancement is noteworthy, especially given that the task was completed in just 45 minutes using publicly available quantum equipment of approximately 70 qubits.

However, this experiment does not immediately imply a collapse of Bitcoin's security. Bitcoin uses a 256-bit encryption system, not 15-bit, meaning there is a very large gap with current technological capabilities. Nevertheless, as the pace of quantum computing development accelerates, the potential for long-term threats is gradually becoming a realistic concern.

Wallets with public keys exposed on-chain are particularly identified as a potential risk group. According to Project Eleven, approximately 6.9 million BTC, valued at about $520 billion, fall into this category, including Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings of approximately 1.1 million BTC.

The market also mentions a strategy of 'collect now, decrypt later'. This involves an attacker accumulating currently public data and decrypting it when future quantum computer performance becomes sufficient. Recent research has also suggested that the number of physical qubits required to decrypt 256-bit could be reduced from less than 500,000 to around 10,000.

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