Michael Saylor isn’t losing any sleep over quantum computing, and his reasoning sheds a new light on the entire debate.
In a recent interview, Michael Saylor, the Bitcoin advocate and co-founder of Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, offered a characteristically blunt take. When asked if he had concerns over quantum computers breaking Bitcoin. He bluntly stated, “If quantum computers can break Bitcoin, they can break everything else too.” What did he mean by this? If quantum computing gets to the point where it can break Bitcoin’s SHA-256 encryption, then all systems from government and military communication systems to global banking and even state secrets would be in jeopardy. Crypto would be the least of our worries.
Turns out he’s not alone in his thinking.
Computer scientists and cryptographers have warned for some time that quantum decryption could potentially endanger the entire internet. Passwords, healthcare data, and banking data could all be affected. Bruce Schneier, a leading voice in cybersecurity, argued that “any public key encryption system in use today is vulnerable to a powerful enough quantum computer.”
The truth is, we’re currently nowhere near that level of quantum power. A number of players like Google, IBM, and Oracle race towards quantum supremacy. But those in the know agree that we’re still years or decades away from quantum computers posing a substantial real-world threat.
That doesn’t change the fact that people in crypto have a tendency to panic and to do so early on.
Saylor’s cool dismissal is a reminder that context matters. The real risks from quantum computers isn’t the crypto in your wallet. It’s absolutely every other element making up the digital foundation of your life. If and when we get to that point, Bitcoin’s encryption will be the least of our worries, and it will be far from the only thing that needs to be rewritten.
