There was another round of market chatter about quantum computers cracking Bitcoin this week, the kind of discussion that usually gets going when BTC is on sale and someone tries to tie price uncertainty to pressuring narrative, but this time Adam Back stepped in and shut the whole narrative down with a single explanation that may have took the tension out of the room for some.
For those not familiar, Back is one of the earliest cypherpunks, whose name HBO openly placed next to Peter Todd in its collective-Satoshi framing. As he makes it clear, the “Q-Day” angle is disconnected from actual engineering timelines and has no operational relevance for the network.
He reckons that it will be at least 20 to 40 years before anything dangerous emerges, and even that estimate is a bit cautious.
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By the time quantum hardware reaches that level, Bitcoin will have undergone a bunch of consensus-wide evaluations and will have already incorporated post-quantum signatures, because those tools are not just hypothetical — they are already out there.
Market theater
Back also talked about the subtext that is always there with this topic: some actors might just be trying to unsettle holders and get their hands on cheaper coins, a tactic the market has seen plenty of times before. As soon as fear takes hold, liquidity dries up, bids go down, and patient buyers hang on.
His message basically boils the issue down to one conclusion. Bitcoin is not exposed, vulnerable or racing against an imaginary countdown. The network has time, tools and a clear path, and the quantum scare cycle is much more useful for narratives than anything grounded in reality.
Source: https://u.today/satoshi-associate-ends-speculations-about-quantum-threat-to-bitcoin-details