Google Recommends Migrating Blockchain to Post-Quantum Cryptography by 2029

On March 31, Google’s Quantum AI team released a white paper indicating that the quantum computing resources required for cryptographically relevant applications are lower than previously anticipated, enabling the breaking of elliptic curve cryptography (ECC). The research shows that a quantum circuit targeting the 256-bit elliptic curve discrete logarithm problem can be solved in minutes on a superconducting quantum computer with fewer than 500,000 physical qubits, reducing resource requirements by approximately 20-fold. Google recommends that the cryptocurrency community migrate to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) by 2029, urges avoidance of exposing or reusing vulnerable wallet addresses, and calls for collaboration with institutions such as Coinbase, the Stanford Blockchain Research Institute, and the Ethereum Foundation to advance these efforts.