The development of quantum computing has revived the debate over Bitcoin’s long-term security, particularly after remarks by StarkWare CEO Eli Ben-Sasson, who predicts a collapse in Bitcoin’s market value without a post-quantum solution. Adam Back, the creator of Hashcash, Blockstream co-founder and cryptographer cited in Bitcoin’s white paper, considers those risks exaggerated and says protection mechanisms are already at the protocol design stage. He points out that Shor’s algorithm could compromise ECDSA and Schnorr signatures but not hash functions such as SHA-256, while Grover’s algorithm provides only a quadratic speedup that is neutralized by Bitcoin’s current security settings. By late 2026, the SHRINCS protocol, a hash-based signature scheme, is expected to enter testing on the Liquid sidechain through a Bitcoin improvement proposal. Back argues that data aggregation, batch verification and STARK proofs can limit the additional data required despite the larger size of post-quantum signatures.
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