A technical debate erupted on X after on-chain analyst Willy Woo revealed what he referred to as a “DUMMIES GUIDE TO BEING QUANTUM SAFE,” urging Bitcoin holders emigrate cash away from Taproot addresses (bc1p) to SegWit bc1q or older P2PKH/P2SH codecs and to keep away from spending till post-quantum protections can be found.
How To Make Bitcoin “Quantum-Secure”
“Up to now it was about defending your PRIVATE KEY (your seed phrase). Within the age of massive scary quantum computer systems (BSQC) which are coming, you have to defend your PUBLIC KEY additionally. Principally a BSQC can work out your non-public key from a public key. The current day taproot addresses (the most recent format) are NOT secure, these are addresses beginning with “bc1p” and so they embed the general public key into the deal with, not good,” Woo wrote on Nov. 11.
His argument hinges on a well-understood distinction in Bitcoin script varieties: Taproot (P2TR) encodes a public key straight within the output and deal with, whereas legacy codecs like P2PKH/P2SH and SegWit P2WPKH hash the general public key and reveal it solely when cash are spent. That architectural distinction issues in a future the place a sufficiently highly effective quantum laptop might derive a personal key from a revealed public key. Impartial references word that P2TR certainly carries a public key within the output, whereas P2PKH conceals it till spend time.
Woo’s interim playbook is blunt: transfer UTXOs to bc1q (or “1”/“3”) addresses, proceed receiving to that deal with, however “NEVER ship BTC out of it” till Bitcoin ships a quantum-resistant improve—at which level holders ought to transfer throughout low congestion, minimizing the window wherein a public secret is uncovered within the mempool: “Ship your BTC into the brand new quantum secure deal with when the community is NOT congested, when you ship, you reveal the non-public key for a short while. It’s unlikely a BSQC will steal your cash in that quick window.”
He additionally warned that P2PK “Satoshi-era” outputs are most in danger and steered that misplaced cash with prior spending historical past could possibly be susceptible. “Satoshi’s 1M cash utilizing an historical P2PK deal with might be stolen (except a future softfork freezes them),” he wrote, including that ETFs, treasuries, and change chilly storage “might be quantum resistant if the custodians take motion” nicely earlier than any tender fork.
Woo characterised business expectations as “2030 onwards” for the arrival of “Q-Day,” whereas stressing that requirements for quantum resistance are already rolling out throughout the broader cryptography area.
Former Bitcoin Core maintainer Jonas Schnelli agreed with the hygiene however pushed again on the framing. He referred to as Woo’s plan a prudent mitigation for unspent cash—“P2PKH offers you years of safety whereas Taproot exposes your pubkey instantly”—but rejected the time period “quantum secure.”
In Schnelli’s view, the second any spend is broadcast, “your pubkey hits the mempool. A quantum attacker might crack your key and RBF double-spend earlier than your transaction confirms (~10 minutes).” He concluded: “It’s a wise precaution, not a everlasting answer.”
At press time, BTC traded at $104,693.
Featured picture created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
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