Quantum Resources for Hacking Bitcoin Reduced by 17 Times

Researchers at Alice & Bob have presented a new quantum computing model that reduces the requirements for breaking Bitcoin's cryptography. An attack on a BTC key would require only 29,588 physical qubits.

This new estimate is 17 times lower than Google's previous calculations, which stood at around 500,000 qubits. The hack would take 62 minutes, which is insufficient for a reliable attack on unconfirmed transactions due to the 10-minute block creation time.

More than 6 million coins are at risk on addresses with exposed public keys. A quantum computer could compute private keys for these assets.

A real threat may emerge in the early 2030s. Technological advancements and reduced equipment requirements will make such attacks feasible in practice.