Nic Carter: Quantum computing is only an engineering challenge away from cracking Bitcoin; 1.7 million Bitcoins are at risk of attack.

According to Mars Finance, Nic Carter, the "father of smart contracts" and co-founder of Castle Island Ventures, published a lengthy article stating that research by renowned quantum theorist and scholar Scott Aaronson shows that quantum computing is merely an extremely difficult engineering problem, not requiring new fundamental physics discoveries, in order to crack Bitcoin. Nic Carter points out that, theoretically, Bitcoin can undergo a soft fork and adopt a post-quantum (PQ) signature scheme. Currently, some quantum-resistant cryptographic signature schemes do exist. However, the main problems lie in determining the specific post-quantum scheme, organizing the soft fork, and the laborious migration of tens of millions of addresses with balances. Therefore, the mitigation measures needed to protect Bitcoin from quantum computing cracking may take nearly a decade. Furthermore, because a large number of vulnerable Bitcoins are stored in abandoned addresses whose owners cannot be forcibly transferred, even if Bitcoin upgrades to a post-quantum signature scheme, it still faces the risk of 1.7 million Bitcoins being suddenly stolen by a quantum attacker. Bitcoin not only needs to upgrade in an orderly and timely manner, but Bitcoin holders must also collectively agree to withhold these 1.7 million Bitcoins to eliminate this risk—unprecedented in Bitcoin's history. Therefore, Nic Carter urged and called on the Bitcoin community and developers to take mitigation measures as soon as possible, rather than viewing the threat of quantum computing with indifference and excessive optimism.