Bitcoin and quantum computing

Understand

Bitcoin is a digital currency and payment system based on classical cryptographic technologies which works without a central administrator such as in traditional currencies.

• It has long been questioned what the impact of quantum computing would be on Bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies in general.
• Here, we analyse three primary directions that quantum computers might have an impact in: mining, security, and forks.
• We find that in the near-term the impact of quantum computers appear to be rather small for all three directions.