Galaxy launches $5M fund to guard Bitcoin against quantum threat
What's the deal? Galaxy Digital has set up a $5 million fund for Bitcoin developers working to protect the network from the potential future threat posed by quantum computing. The firm will begin accepting applications for the Galaxy Bitcoin Quantum Readiness Initiative immediately.
Where the money goes: Grants will focus on quantum-resistant signature schemes, wallet migration tools, and security audits. Galaxy said it hopes other firms will contribute funding and research to speed the transition to quantum-resistant cryptography.
Why now? Bitcoin secures wallets and transactions with cryptography that current computers cannot break in any meaningful timeframe. Quantum computing is still too immature to attack the blockchain, but advances have accelerated efforts across government and industry to adopt quantum-resistant standards.
What's at stake? If quantum computers do become capable of breaking Bitcoin's cryptography, roughly 6.9 million bitcoin could become vulnerable to theft, according to CryptoQuant. At about $66,800 per coin, that comes to some $461 billion.
What could go wrong? Researchers agree the threat is not imminent, but many argue preparations should begin now because agreeing on and deploying protocol upgrades could take years. Migrating Bitcoin to post-quantum cryptography is expected to be far more complex than earlier upgrades such as Taproot, requiring coordination across developers, wallets, exchanges, and users.
The signal: Governments are moving fast. President Donald Trump signed two executive orders directing the US to build a large-scale quantum computer and defend federal systems against one, while the US Commerce Department signed letters of intent to award more than $2 billion to nine quantum computing companies. As that capacity grows, the race to future-proof Bitcoin is starting well ahead of the threat.
Read more: CoinDesk
Image credit: IBM Research
