Nobel Prize-winning physicist John Martinis warns Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) could be cracked in minutes by quantum computers but says the community has 5-10 years to upgrade to quantum-resistant encryption.

The Minutes Warning

A recent Google paper endorsed by Martinis shows how a sufficiently advanced quantum computer could derive a Bitcoin private key from its public key in minutes, exploiting the brief window when a transaction’s public key is exposed before confirmation.

The vulnerability centers on a specific exposure window. 

When a Bitcoin transaction is broadcast, its public key becomes visible before it is confirmed on-chain. 

A powerful quantum computer could use that window to…

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