Independent researcher Giancarlo Lelli has broken a 15-bit elliptic curve cryptography key using publicly available quantum hardware, claiming a 1 BTC bounty in what stands as the largest publicly documented quantum attack on ECC to date.
The milestone is symbolic rather than immediately threatening — 256-bit ECC, the standard protecting Bitcoin private keys, is estimated to require roughly 500,000 qubits to crack, far beyond current hardware capabilities. Today's most advanced quantum processors operate in the thousands of physical qubits, with error rates still significant.
Even so, the research sharpens a long-running concern: approximately 6.9 million BTC sit in addresses whose public keys are already exposed on-chain, making them theoretically first in line if quantum capability scales. The findings add weight to calls for Bitcoin to adopt post-quantum cryptographic standards…
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