In brief
- Michael Saylor called quantum computers a bigger risk to banks and tech giants than to Bitcoin.
- The Strategy co-founder said phishing, not quantum computers, is the real danger to Bitcoin users today.
- He believes the crypto industry can adapt quickly if a threat emerges.
Bitcoin’s most outspoken bull, Michael Saylor, isn’t losing sleep over what some call its biggest existential threat: quantum computing.
In an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday, the Strategy co-founder dismissed fears that future quantum machines could one day unravel Bitcoin’s cryptographic foundations, calling the threat overhyped and ultimately easy to overcome.
“I don’t worry about it,” he said. “Microsoft and Google market their quantum projects, but they would never sell a quantum computer that cracked cryptography, because it would destroy their own companies.”
Quantum computers, which predate Bitcoin by more than a decade, have recently made strides in error correction and qubit stability, sparking renewed fears they could one day compromise the cryptographic algorithms protecting the trillion-dollar cryptocurrency industry.
In May, a research paper by Google suggested that it may be 20 times easier for a quantum computer to break the RSA encryption that underpins Bitcoin.
Despite these dire predictions, Saylor said that quantum computers still lack practical applications, and if they do emerge in the next 10 to 20 years, they will pose greater threats to systems that are far more vulnerable than Bitcoin.
“It’ll be a threat to Microsoft, Google, J.P. Morgan, and the U.S. government,” he said.
Saylor expressed confidence that blockchain systems could be upgraded to resist quantum threats, if and when they become a reality.
“You’ll see it coming a mile away, and every other digital entity in the world is more vulnerable to that threat than Bitcoin,” he said.
Blockchain groups are ramping up efforts to prepare for the advent of quantum computers. In April, the quantum computing research group Project 11 announced a 1 BTC bounty, currently worth $109,810, to the first team to break a simplified version of Bitcoin’s elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) using a quantum computer.
In a separate interview with CNBC on Friday, Saylor called phishing scams a bigger threat to a person’s Bitcoin holdings than quantum computers.
“If I wanted to hack your Bitcoin, I’d send you an email saying a quantum computer can hack your Bitcoin: ‘Click on the link to upgrade now,’ and then I’d steal your Bitcoin,” he said. “It’s 10,000 times more likely I’m phishing you than there is a threat. So no, I’m not worried about it.”
Even if quantum computers become powerful enough to break modern encryption, Saylor reiterated his stance that Bitcoin won’t be the first target.
“They will hack your banking system, your Google account, your Microsoft account, and every other asset you have much sooner, because they’re an order of magnitude weaker,” he concluded.
Still, despite Saylor’s bullishness on the ability of Bitcoin to resist quantum threats, a 2024 report by the World Economic Forum flagged quantum computing as a global risk, warning that it could enable the future decryption of today’s encrypted data and reshape control over computing power.
Strategy pioneered the Bitcoin treasury model that has recently gained momentum, with dozens of firms following Saylor’s lead. The Nasdaq-listed firm has stacked nearly $64 billion worth of Bitcoin since it started buying in 2020.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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