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Project Eleven, a improvement steadfast focused connected post-quantum cryptography, raised $6 cardinal to assistance unafraid Bitcoin and different integer assets against aboriginal quantum computing threats.
According to a Thursday announcement shared with Cointelegraph, the backing circular was co-led by starring Web3 capitalist Variant Fund and quantum tech capitalist Quantonation, among others. It marks Quantonation’s archetypal concern successful the crypto space.
Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden said the backing volition let the institution to physique “the tools, standards and ecosystem required to guarantee integer assets stay unafraid successful a post-quantum world.”
According to Eleven Labs and YCharts information cited by Project Eleven, “There are presently 10,095,693 Bitcoin addresses with a non-zero equilibrium and an exposed nationalist key, putting a full of 6,262,905 BTC — worthy astir $648 cardinal — astatine hazard of a imaginable quantum attack.”
Percentage of BTC astatine risk. Source: Eleven Labs (Jan. 17, 2025) and YCharts (June 18, 2025)Related: Bitcoin indispensable upgrade oregon autumn unfortunate to quantum computing successful 5 years
The company’s archetypal release, a cryptographic registry called Yellowpages, is designed to fto users make a quantum-resistant impervious linking their existent Bitcoin addresses to new, unafraid ones, without relying connected onchain activity. Pruden said the registry volition enactment arsenic a fallback successful the lawsuit that quantum computers compromise existing Bitcoin keys.
Pruden said Yellowpages was audited by Cure 53 and that the institution volition station the audit results shortly. Project Eleven has besides opened discussions with Bitcoin Core developers astir imaginable aboriginal upgrades.
The quantum menace to Bitcoin
Adam Back, cited by Satoshi Nakamoto successful the Bitcoin (BTC) achromatic paper, antecedently suggested that quantum computing unit may unit Bitcoin’s creator to uncover whether they’re alive.
The quantum menace to Bitcoin is simply a arguable topic, with immoderate arguing that it is simply a theoretical menace that does not warrant dedicated resources. Still, the hazard is taken earnestly by many.
The US National Security Agency “intends that each National Security Systems volition beryllium quantum-resistant by 2035,” according to a precocious 2024 document. Under those plans, caller acquisitions volition necessitate quantum-resistant encryption by 2027, and bequest cogwheel volition beryllium phased retired successful 2030–2031.
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology also stated in precocious 2024 that its extremity is “achieving wide [post-quantum cryptography] adoption by 2035.”
“It’s not a question of whether oregon not it’s theoretical, it’s astatine what constituent it becomes practical,” Pruden told Cointelegraph.
US nonprofit and planetary argumentation deliberation tank, probe institute and nationalist assemblage consulting steadfast Rand conducted an adept survey connected the taxable successful 2020. The report estimated that the mean clip until a cryptography-breaking quantum machine emerges is 2033, but noted that “earlier and overmuch aboriginal improvement are possible,” with the scope starting from 2027.
Related: The Q-Day Prize challenge, explained: Can quantum computers truly interruption Bitcoin?
Rand’s probe preceded a study released by Google successful May, which managed to trim the request to interruption RSA-2048 from 20 cardinal to astir 1 cardinal noisy qubits moving for 1 week, inactive good beyond today’s capabilities, which hover astir a fewer 100 unchangeable qubits.
Classical computers are inactive king
Pruden told Cointelegraph that “Quantum computers tin already origin tiny ECDSA nationalist keys.” Still, the aforesaid tin beryllium said astir classical computers.
In a 2022 paper, researchers shared the accomplishment of factoring a 48-bit semiprime number, 261,980,999,226,229, connected a 10-qubit computer. Last year, D-Wave used a quantum annealing machine to origin a 50-bit semiprime fig utilizing a hybrid classical and quantum search.
For context, the grounds connected classical computers was acceptable successful 2020 connected a supercomputer with astir 2,700 CPU-core-years, which was capable to origin a 829-bit RSA cardinal and progressive a 415-bit prime. This is equivalent to astir 3 months connected a mean HPC cluster.
Magazine: Bitcoin vs. the quantum machine threat: Timeline and solutions (2025–2035)
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