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Fidelity Signals Bitcoin’s Private Keys Face Future Quantum Risk
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Fidelity Digital Assets says future quantum computers could derive Bitcoin private keys from exposed public keys, threatening funds.
Key facts
- BIP 341 was assigned in January 2020 before the upgrade activated in 2021
- Its current design specifies a 48-byte public key, stateful signatures ranging from 548 to 4,619 bytes, and a 5,777-byte stateless signature
- Lost or corrupted state prevents the wallet from safely continuing through that path, while SHRINCS’ fallback draws on algorithms from the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s SLH-DSA standard published Aug
- Fidelity joined eight other financial and crypto companies in July to fund a $15 million Bitcoin security initiative that includes quantum-resistance research
Summary
Bitcoin’s private-key protections may eventually require replacement or supplementation, according to the Fidelity Digital Assets analysis published Sept. 1. Fidelity Digital Assets Research identified transaction throughput as a central constraint for any future Bitcoin security upgrade:. “Minimizing key size to preserve Bitcoin’s transaction throughput remains a key concern, although the impact may be less pronounced considering the current state of a near-empty mempool.” Private keys allow bitcoin owners to authorize transactions without relying on an intermediary.