According to him:
“We should migrate Bitcoin to a quantum-resistant signature scheme. This is my bet, and it’s because so many technologies are converging right now, and this asymptotic rate of AI and how fast it’s accelerating—going from a research paper to an implementation—is astounding. So I would try to encourage folks to speed things up.”
Considering this, he argued that these major tech firms’ adoption of quantum-resistant cryptography should signal the right time for Bitcoin to migrate its security architecture.
The Solana co-founder furthered:
“My key for this is Google and Apple adopting a quantum-resistant cryptographic stack. This is the time to go migrate, because now the consumer side of it is effectively solved and you don’t have to kind of wait. So you watch where Google’s going.”
However, despite Yakovenko’s warnings, industry experts remain split on the technological advancements timeline as some argue that breakthroughs could occur within this decade, while others contend that the risks remain distant.
Regardless of when its implementation occurs, Yakovenko stressed that the technology would be both a challenge and an opportunity.
He said:
“For the general public, quantum computing is such a massive unlock in terms of how much we can process that it’s going to be as big of a wealth creator, if we pull it off, as AI.”
Even as he warned about the long-term threats of quantum computing, Yakovenko highlighted Bitcoin’s resilience against present-day risks.
Yakovenko said:
“I think as long as it’s an open global competition to acquire Bitcoin, and anyone can participate in that, and we don’t end up in some kind of regulated nightmare—you know, like when you couldn’t acquire gold in the 70s—I think Bitcoin would survive those kinds of shocks.”
He stated:
“Its beauty is that it’s the simplest protocol you can build because it is focused on just settlement. It’s very easy to understand from an engineering point of view, and proof-of-work is a masterpiece in terms of elegance and simplicity.”
