Coinbase Quantum Advisory Council Publishes First Position Paper, Warns Crypto Industry To Start Preparing Now

The @coinbase Independent Advisory Board on Quantum Computing and Blockchain has published its first position paper, warning the crypto industry to begin preparing for the threat of quantum computing even though today's blockchains remain secure.

The 50-page report, released Tuesday, concludes that a fault-tolerant quantum computer capable of breaking widely used encryption is becoming increasingly plausible. It cautions that "waiting for it to be urgent is not a good idea," noting that transitions across blockchains, wallets, and exchanges could take years to complete.

The paper's authors include Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan, Coinbase head of cryptography Yehuda Lindell, and University of Texas at Austin quantum computing pioneer Scott Aaronson.

The report identifies digital signatures at the wallet layer as the primary vulnerability. Bitcoin wallets with exposed public keys are flagged as most at risk, while Bitcoin mining, hash functions, and on-chain historical records are not considered substantial concerns.

Post-quantum cryptography already exists and is being standardized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, but the transition is far from straightforward. Post-quantum digital signatures can be tens to hundreds of times larger than current ones, which could significantly increase blockchain data costs and reduce network throughput — posing a meaningful engineering challenge for the industry.