Will Google's Willow quantum chip threaten Bitcoin?

Is Bitcoin facing another security threat warning?

On Monday, December 16, Quoth the Raven, a blogger from the well-known financial blog QTR's Fringe Finance, warned that despite the recent surge in Bitcoin's popularity among investors, it remains an opaque and high-risk market where surprises can occur at any time.

Currently, the total market capitalization of digital currencies is approximately $3 trillion, with Bitcoin, as the largest cryptocurrency, continuously growing in value—undoubtedly, Bitcoin's attractive valuation increases the risk of attacks on its network.

Although the Bitcoin network is designed with considerable redundancy and security measures, the risks will grow as quantum computing technology advances for two reasons:

First, quantum computing may be able to break Bitcoin's encryption protection through faster computation speeds, potentially controlling Bitcoin's blockchain and affecting transaction security; second, quantum computing may also crack the Bitcoins stored by Satoshi Nakamoto (the creator of Bitcoin), as these Bitcoins use older encryption formats.

Raven added that while Bitcoin may ultimately maintain its security amid this wave of technological development, gold remains the "number one" safe-haven asset. After all, as a risk asset, Bitcoin will face many new challenges in the future, while gold has already endured these challenges over the past 5,000 years.

Why does the development of quantum computing threaten Bitcoin's security?

The prevailing view is that to protect the Bitcoin network, miners and those investing in network development must always stay at the forefront of technological changes and encryption capabilities to ensure that the Bitcoin network does not fall behind amid the continuous advancement of microprocessor technology.

Analyst Michael Saylor believes that if someone has the ability to crack the SHA-256 encryption algorithm used by Bitcoin, then not only is Bitcoin in danger, but also large-scale networks that use the same encryption technology, especially defense, military, and government computer networks, are all at risk.

On December 10, Google launched its new quantum computing chip Willow, which can complete computational tasks that would take supercomputers billions of years in just five minutes. Moreover, Willow has addressed a significant barrier in quantum computing—reducing errors as the system scales up.

Undoubtedly, Willow has attracted the attention of the cryptocurrency community.

Protos, a media outlet focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, wrote this week: Willow has sparked fears because it is believed to pose a serious threat to Bitcoin's security in two key ways—first, by surpassing Bitcoin's mining network, and second, by targeting Satoshi's Bitcoins.

Protos explained that Willow's breakthrough capabilities could surpass Bitcoin's global mining network, which secures transactions by solving complex cryptographic puzzles. If Willow can perform these tasks faster and cheaper than this network, it could take control of Bitcoin's blockchain, thereby reordering, reviewing, or even conducting double-spending transactions As for the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, he holds over 1 million Bitcoins, which are stored using an older encryption format (P2PK) that publicly exposes the public key on the blockchain. Quantum computers may exploit this vulnerability by brute-forcing the private key, potentially unlocking Satoshi Nakamoto's holdings