Fidelity Digital says quantum-proofing Bitcoin is possible but challenging

Fidelity Digital Assets published a research report titled “Bitcoin’s Path to Quantum Resistance” that lays out the technical roadmap for making Bitcoin immune to quantum computing attacks. The verdict: the math works, but the politics might not. The report concludes that quantum-resistant upgrades through soft forks are technically feasible. The catch is that every proposed solution comes with tradeoffs that would reshape how Bitcoin processes transactions, and convincing a famously fractious community to adopt any single approach remains the tallest hurdle of all. The quantum threat, translated Bitcoin currently relies on two digital signature algorithms, ECDSA and Schnorr, to secure transactions. These algorithms work because deriving a private key from a public key is computationally impractical for classical computers. Quantum computers change the equation. A sufficiently powerful quantum machine running something called Shor’s algorithm could reverse that process, effectively extracting private keys from public keys. That would let an attacker spend anyone’s Bitcoin. The important qualifier: no such machine exists yet. Fidelity’s report emphasizes that no Cryptographically Re...