Google's 2029 Quantum Upgrade Sparks Bitcoin Security Questions

Google has announced a 2029 deadline to migrate its systems to post-quantum cryptography, citing growing quantum hardware capabilities that could undermine current encryption and digital signatures. While Bitcoin faces long-term cryptographic risk from quantum attacks like Shor’s algorithm, upgrading Bitcoin is a decentralized, multi-stakeholder effort that won’t happen overnight. Initiatives such as BIP 360 introducing Pay-to-Merkle-Root are beginning to prepare for quantum-resistant signatures, and some estimates suggest a sizable portion of Bitcoin addresses could be vulnerable in a future quantum era—though exact timelines for practical quantum attacks remain uncertain.