Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko is urging the Bitcoin community to begin transitioning to quantum-resistant security measures, warning that advances in quantum computing may arrive faster than expected.
Speaking during a Sept. 18 session at the All-In Summit, said the accelerating pace of technological breakthroughs means Bitcoin should not wait until the threat is imminent.
According to him:
“We should migrate Bitcoin to a quantum-resistant signature scheme. This is my bet, and it’s because so many technologies are converging right now, and this asymptotic rate of AI and how fast it’s accelerating—going from a research paper to an implementation—is astounding. So I would try to encourage folks to speed things up.”
Yakovenko’s position is unsurprising, as market concerns over Bitcoin’s vulnerability to quantum-powered attacks have gained momentum following companies like Google reporting advances in the space.
Considering this, he argued that these major tech firms’ adoption of quantum-resistant cryptography should signal the right time for Bitcoin to migrate its security architecture.
The Solana co-founder furthered:
“My key for this is Google and Apple adopting a quantum-resistant cryptographic stack. This is the time to go migrate, because now the consumer side of it is effectively solved and you don’t have to kind of wait. So you watch where Google’s going.”
However, despite Yakovenko’s warnings, industry experts remain split on the technological advancements timeline as some argue that breakthroughs could occur within this decade, while others contend that the risks remain distant.
Regardless of when its implementation occurs, Yakovenko stressed that the technology would be both a challenge and an opportunity.
He said:
“For the general public, quantum computing is such a massive unlock in terms of how much we can process that it’s going to be as big of a wealth creator, if we pull it off, as AI.”
Bitcoin remains resilient
Even as he warned about the long-term threats of quantum computing, Yakovenko highlighted Bitcoin’s resilience against present-day risks.
He argued that while the collapses of companies holding large treasuries of Bitcoin like Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) may rattle markets, they cannot undermine the asset itself because of its decentralized, open-access design.
Yakovenko said:
“I think as long as it’s an open global competition to acquire Bitcoin, and anyone can participate in that, and we don’t end up in some kind of regulated nightmare—you know, like when you couldn’t acquire gold in the 70s—I think Bitcoin would survive those kinds of shocks.”
Yakovenko also praised proof-of-work as one of Bitcoin’s strongest shields against coordinated attacks. He explained that the consensus model is intentionally simple, making it extremely difficult to compromise at scale.
He stated:
“Its beauty is that it’s the simplest protocol you can build because it is focused on just settlement. It’s very easy to understand from an engineering point of view, and proof-of-work is a masterpiece in terms of elegance and simplicity.”