Coinbase has assembled a new advisory board of academics and industry experts from Stanford, Harvard, and the University of California to study the long-term risks that quantum computing could pose to Bitcoin (BTC) and other blockchain networks, though the company's chief security officer said the threat remains at least a decade away.
What Happened: Exchange Forms Expert Panel
The board, officially named the Coinbase Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain, includes specialists in computer science, cryptography, and financial technology from major universities.
Members also represent the Ethereum (ETH) Foundation and decentralized finance platform EigenLayer, according to Fortune.
Jeff Lunglhofer, Coinbase's chief information security officer, explained that quantum computers could eventually solve the mathematical problems protecting wallet encryption in far less time than traditional computers. Current encryption relies on calculations that would take conventional machines thousands of years to crack.
Quantum computers could potentially work a million times faster.
The advisory group plans to publish research papers and position statements to help the industry prepare. Its first paper, addressing quantum computing's influence on blockchain consensus and transaction layers, is expected within the next couple of months.
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Why It Matters: Decade-Long Preparation Window
Lunglhofer said the security implications of quantum computing are genuine but not expected to become an immediate concern for at least 10 years.
That timeline gives the industry room to act. Blockchain experts say that networks will likely implement larger encryption keys and add "noise" to obscure their locations, making private keys harder to detect through trial-and-error methods.
Implementing these defensive upgrades across blockchain networks could take several years, the publication reported.
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