April 2, 2026

After announcing a 2029 target for migration to post-quantum cryptography (PQC), Google issues a new warning that a quantum system could attack a Bitcoin (BTC) transaction in about nine minutes.

The tech giant warned it won’t happen today but it’s a possibility one should be prepared for sooner than later.

Understanding quantum threat to cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrencies are virtual currencies that rely on cryptography to encrypt or conceal sensitive financial details from those other than transacting parties.

Though the most powerful supercomputers active today will take thousands of years to decrypt cryptography, the cryptocurrency community fears quantum computers will be able to crack cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin within minutes or even seconds.

While the computers active today use binary electrical signals or bits to represent ones or zeros, quantum computers use quantum bits (qubits), which are subatomic particles.

Google sounds the alarm: a quantum computer could hijack a Bitcoin transaction in just nine minutes, threatening the very foundation of cryptocurrency security! While today's supercomputers would take millennia to crack encryption, Google's breakthrough research reveals that fewer than 500,000 qubits—far less than previously thought—could break Bitcoin’s defenses mid-transaction by exploiting the fleeting public key before confirmation. Though not an immediate danger, this chilling warning signals a quantum threat looming on the horizon, forcing the crypto world to prepare for a digital heist the likes of which have never been seen before!

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