How Should Bitcoiners View Quantum Computing?

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In the early 2020s, quantum computing hit the public spotlight as a potential threat to Bitcoin. Relying on SHA-256 cryptographic hash function for its proof-of-work network consensus, Bitcoin’s value is predicated on computational power.

If there is a technology that can circumvent the traditional binary system of 0s and 1s for units of information, there is potential to upend cryptography as we know it. But is that danger over exaggerated?

Could quantum computing one day turn Bitcoin into a valueless piece of code? Let’s start by understanding why Bitcoin relies on cryptography.

Bitcoin’s Bits and Hashing

When we say that an image is 1 MB in size, we say that it contains 1,000,000…